Pushed too Far
by UchihaSakura-always
Summary: [Sequelish to Hostage] The girls of Konoha can only be pushed so far before they snap. When these girls do, they leave the village to join a familiar organization. ItaSaku DeiHina other crack pairings
1. Chapter 1

**I'd like to thank Tsu-shishou for giving me the idea, and being awesome! Oh… and I turned this into a sequel to Hostage, just because I said I might. But it isn't really necessary to read it; I won't have too many references from it. Just know: Sasuke is dead, Sakura hates Hinata's younger sister Hanabi. Naruto and Hinata have a son (gag!).**

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It was Friday once again. More specifically, the second Friday of the month. And that is why at exactly 8:00pm four girls were located at Haruno Sakura's house, each catching up about the recent developments in their lives.

"Naruto has just perfect another jutsu," Sakura reported. "Since the one that he used to bring…is old one isn't good enough anymore."

"Shikamaru turned down ANBU again," Ino said. "They ask him over and over again, and he still refuses to take the job."

"Neji says it's a waste of his time to spar with me anymore. And Lee doesn't have time since he became a sensei."

"K-Kiba-kun and Shino-kun still won't actually f-fight me. They keep hesitating or l-letting me w-win."

A collective sigh went around the room.

"Tsuande-shishou says when she retires she's letting me take over complete control of the hospital."

"I can take control of someone without them noticing and without leaving my body."

"I could kick Neji's ass if I really wanted to!"

"So c-c-could I."

"Then why is it that we're still being treated like this?" Sakura asked. "Even after all these years, I'm still considered the little girl from Team 7 that needed to be rescued again and again. I mean, sure when we were younger we weren't the strongest of people, but we're not that way anymore!"

"She's right," Tenten agreed. "Sakura-chan can punch craters in the ground as big as Suna. If that's not strong then we're all doomed."

"I didn't need rescuing in the first place," Ino said in a huff. "Sure my Mind Transfer jutsu wasn't flawless, but it was still effective."

Hinata nodded sadly; "They still don't like that I'm the heiress."

Ino jumped to her feet, looking livid. "Ok that's enough. I am so sick of people treating us like this! Hinata-chan, you would make a _great _Hyuuga Head, and they should know that by now!"

Tenten nodded in agreement, Sakura raised her glass with a small "here, here" and Hinata looked at the ground.

"This town would fall to pieces without us," Tenten said. "Those boys need us here to help them, yet its never appreciated. I just don't understand it."

They all fell silent. They all thought those words all the time, they had just never spoke them. "Then why do we stay?" Hinata asked, her voice so low the other girls could barely hear her. "What's the point of b-being here if we're always t-treated like this?"

Tenten, Sakura and Ino stared at her. Neither of them had _ever _thought that Hinata of all people would ask the question they all thought, but never dared voice.

"We have no where else to go," Sakura finally said. "If we left, we'd be…"

"Missing-nin," Ino finished for her, knowing that Sakura had a hard time with that particular word. Ever since Sasuke had left the village that term was hard for the pink-haired woman.

"They might finally acknowledge us," Tenten said bitterly.

"Couldn't we just… go on v-vacation to S-Suna? Then we're only three d-days away, but they have to r-realize what its like w-w-without us."

"She has all the great ideas," Ino said. "So why can't the Hyuuga elders see that?"

"They can see everything else," Tenten said darkly. "Trust me… I know. Neji isn't as honorable as people seem to think he is."

Ino and Sakura burst into a fit of laughter, while Hinata looked slightly disturbed.

"Its getting late," Ino commented as she looked at the clock hanging on Sakura's wall. "I've got to help kaa-san open the shop tomorrow."

"I promised Lee I'd teach his students proper ways to use weaponry in battle."

"We meet at Tenten-chan's house next week, right?" Sakura asked, climbing to her feet to say goodbye to her guests.

"Only if we're still in the village," Ino said, only half joking.

The other three laughed without much enthusiasm. Their minds were still stuck on what life would be like if the rest of the village wasn't constantly putting them down. Yet, they still walked to their houses, just to get up the next day and start their pitiful existences all over again.

It was a vicious cycle, one that never seemed to stop. They would get up, go about their day, put up with the mental abuse, and never once complain about it. They knew that they were stronger than people gave them credit for, and if they ever wanted to prove that, it would be all too easy. Yet they wouldn't, they just ignore the cruel voices, pretending like they didn't notice the way they were never quite treated the way they deserved.

They could go through with this; whether it was acknowledged or not, they were strong, beautiful, talented, and smart kounichi that served their village well. And that was enough for them… for awhile.

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A month later they found themselves at Tenten's house, staring at Sakura who was in the middle of a rant that had been going on for about ten minutes now. She had been sent on a mission with Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi to protect some old man that was of high importance in another country. It was a B rank mission to a village that was only a four-day journey.

On the second day they were attacked. There were about five of them, and were clearly no match for Team Kakashi. However, even though these men were clearly weak, Naruto had taken it upon himself to send a Kage bunshin to stand in front of his female teammate anytime someone as much as glanced at her. She was near punching the clone just to prove she didn't need his help.

"Sure I'm a medic and I'm not _supposed _to be fighting in case something comes up and I'm needed, but I could've beat these guys when I was still a gennin!"

"You'd think Naruto would realize that by now… I mean, how many times have you punched his face in?" Tenten commented.

"I know… I mean, I'm not weak anymore. I managed to survive being the hostage of Itachi!" she caught her mistake and added, "Uchiha freaking Itachi!" to cover it up. She had not yet told her friends exactly what had happened while she was in the… care of the Akatsuki.

"It must have b-been terrible for you Sakura-chan," Hinata said sympathetically.

"Are you kidding?" Ino said, trying to lighten the atmosphere that always seemed to get thick and heavy whenever Sakura mentioned her kidnapping. "She was in a house full of only males. How can that be considered terrible?"

"I don't know…" Sakura said, smiling slightly. "I saw one that might not have been male…"

"Oh, speaking of not entirely male," Tenten said. "Neji said there was some kind of Hyuuga meeting going on today. How'd that go?"

"Neji's not entirely male?" Ino asked, smirking.

"His hair is softer than mine is."

"How do you know how soft his hair is?"

"More important matter here," Sakura said, cutting Ino and Tenten off. "What happened at the meeting Hinata-chan?"

"Apparently having a failed m-m-marriage makes me an even bigger disappointment to the clan… they've been talking about l-letting Hanabi take over instead." Sakura growled murderously at the younger Hyuuga's name, Ino jumped to her feet screaming "WHAT?!" and Tenten was halfway out the door, a large scroll in her hand.

"They're going to let… let… they can't! Aren't there laws about that kind of thing?!" Ino was ranting, so angry her words weren't completely clear.

"Let them."

Those two simple words caused Ino stopped in her tracks, her mouth hanging open in shock, Hinata to look at the ground trying to hold back tears, and Tenten turning around pulling out a few shuriken and looked about ready to chuck them at the pink haired girl. "Let them make the runt an heiress. We won't be here anyway."

"S-Sakura-chan… you d-don't mean…" Hinata trailed off, her eyes wide.

"If they don't want you as the head of the family, and they gave Naruto custody, what's left for you here?" She turned to Ino, "They're never going to let you join ANBU. They're too insistent on you remaining at the hospital, and we all know how much you hate it there." She gave her blond friend an apologetic look before looking at Tenten, but was cut off.

"Sakura-chan, this is our home. I know life has been hard on you since… what happened to Sasuke… but we can't just leave? What if the… Akatsuki gets us?"

"We can protect ourselves," Sakura assured them, half convinced to tell them the truth about her time with Itachi simply to convince them.

"I'm in," Hinata said quietly.

"Ino-chan? Tenten-chan? What about you?"

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**Sorry for the cliffhanger, now you guys get to decide: will Ino and Tenten go along? Leave a review saying if you want Ino and/or Tenten to join them. You may choose to have one person go but not the other… just please tell me or I'll choose.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Updates about this story are on my profile!**

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Sakura was in the middle of packing her bags when she heard the banging at the door. She quickly hid the evidence under her bed before hurrying to see who had come to pay her a visit. She didn't know who would be at her house this late, but there was no way that she was getting caught packing, it would lead to questions she didn't have stories for. She opened the door to find Ino, tears running down her face and eyes blazing.

"I want out of this town. I'm going with you and Hinata-chan."

"Ino what happened?" Sakura asked as she ushered her friend inside and locked the door.

"He was… with someone else…"

Sakura didn't have to ask what she meant, and without a second thought she gave her friend a brief hug before getting up to make her some tea. "You can stay the night here," she called over her shoulder. "Then tomorrow I'll help you pack and we can leave at nightfall."

"It's really going to be that easy?" Ino asked as Sakura handed her the cup. "To just… walk out of Konoha?"

"We have a mission. I've got the scrolls for it in my bag, just in case we're stopped at the gate. But I am the Hokage's apprentice so I don't think we'll get questioned…" Sakura bit her lip, she hadn't really given much thought to this. She had taken a mission scroll from Tsuande's office and figured everything would be ok, now she was beginning to have doubts. "Worst case scenario we jump the gate, right?" she asked, trying to lighten the subject.

"Won't it seem suspicious… the three of us on a mission together? I mean… we're all medics… And if Tenten comes it'll seem even worse. Four kunoichi going on a mission when only one isn't medical…"

"We'll think of something… we always do."

Sakura and Ino made their way down the street, putting on cheery faces and joking as if they hadn't a care in the world. They had become good at this, pretending to be happy when they really weren't, Sakura had spent most of her time since she was back in Konoha lying. Ino was just a natural actress. Sakura guessed it might be from a few missions that her friend never spoke about.

"Sakura-chan! Ino-chan! Wait up," someone called. The two friends stopped and turned to see Tenten hurrying towards them. "Where are you guys headed?" she asked when she caught up.

"My place," Ino answered. "We were planning on hanging out and relaxing for awhile. You coming?"

Tenten caught the hidden message. "Sure, I don't want to be left behind now do I?" she put on a fake smile and the three of them walked towards the Yamanaka residence, realizing this may be the last time they do so. And so they walked slower than usual, they paused every so often to take in as much as they could. They walked past the Academy and watched the kids training outside, Iruka standing by to monitor their behavior. Sakura almost let a tear slip when she saw a bossy looking girl yell at a group for picking on another girl who was trying to hide her own tears. Tenten had to grab her friends' shoulders and lead them away so they didn't stand there too long.

They walked past the Hyuuga mansion to politely ask if Hinata could come spend the day with them. They were told she was busy that day, and shouldn't be bothered by such "pointless things".

"Well, just tell her that we're at Ino's house if she ever gets a spare moment," Sakura said, her voice forced calm. The Hyuuga nodded and promptly slammed the door in their faces.

They finally reached Ino's house, a bit disappointed. They had purposely taken the longest route possible, simply to spend more time in the town they so dearly loved.

"If we love it here so much, why are we leaving?" Tenten asked once they were in the safety of Ino's room.

"How long has it been since you felt truly happy, Tenten-chan?" Sakura asked.

Tenten didn't reply for awhile, just looked out the window as if trying to memorize every detail. "When I was a gennin…"

"Life was simpler then," Ino agreed, going through her closet and throwing random outfits in a bag. "We never planned on abandoning the village…"

"You two maybe…" Sakura said quietly. "I was ready to leave to go find Sasuke by myself and bring him back."

Neither of her friends responded. They simply didn't know how you could possibly say anything to a person who lost the love of their life. So instead, Ino continued packing, Tenten gazed out the window more, and Sakura played with a loose string on one of Ino's blankets.

How long they were there was a mystery to them, they just knew that eventually Hinata showed up, a bag already with her. "I t-told the elders I had a m-mission and n-needed some supplies from Sakura-chan," she explained.

"I still haven't packed… I didn't think I was going to go," Tenten said. "But if all three of you are going, I'm not getting left behind."

"I-Ino-chan is g-going too?"

"She decided last night," Sakura said to save her friend from having to explain. "It was very sudden… and unexpected…"

"Well I'm g-g-glad you decided to j-join us Ino-chan. It would b-be lonely without you."

"Its sunset, people should be going home about now," Tenten said.

Everyone nodded, and Sakura took charge, "Hinata-chan, you stay here with Ino and the two of you get as much food as you can so we don't have to worry about stopping in some town where we might be recognized. Tenten-chan, you go home, pack all you can, as many weapon scrolls as possible, that way you won't be weighed down by random weapons. We'll meet back here in 45 minutes."

They all nodded, and left for their tasks. Hinata set her bag down on Ino's bed then followed the blond into the kitchen, Tenten jumped out the window she was so fond of out onto a neighboring roof, and Sakura left out the front door, walking casually to her house.

Once she was home she quickly grabbed her bag, as well as several canteens filled with water. She looked around her house realizing that this was the last time she would be there… she didn't even get to say goodbye to her parents.

"_I hate it here, Itachi. I want to go home."_

'Why am I going back then?' she asked herself. 'I hated it at the Akatsuki…'

**But now you'll have a piece of home with you, **Inner Sakura reminded her. **Now you're friends will be with you, so you won't be so homesick.**

"I love this town," she said out loud.

"Itachi, if… if it was a different time, a different place, different circumstances, could you have ever loved me?"

**You loved him too.**

'Stop playing with my memories, would you,' she scolded her inner self. She then grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and began writing a small note.

_Dear Naruto,_

_I'm sorry it had to be like this, I really am. You were the best friend I ever could have asked for, and I will always love you for that. But I can't stay here… anymore. This place has too many memories that are too hard for me, and too many things have happened that I just can't take anymore. _

_Our paths will cross, and I hope that by then you'll have been able to forgive me. I'm so sorry that I'm going to have to put you through this once more, but its something I have to do. _

_The town won't fall to pieces with some missing kunoichi._

_Sakura_

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"Is everybody ready," Ino asked, once everyone was back at her house. Her pink haired friend seemed to have lost the ability to speak and was having trouble taking command once again.

"As ready as we can be, all things considered," Tenten said, pulling a pack higher up on her shoulder.

"L-let's go," Hinata said, "They'll be switching g-guards soon, so we might be able t-to get out unnoticed."

They nodded and quickly made their way to the gate, being careful to stay as far away from houses as possible, just in case someone saw them. They would be found out, but hopefully they would be far enough gone that there was no chance in them catching up.

"We're in luck," Tenten eventually said. "We don't have to worry about a fake mission…"

"We're… really going to do this," Sakura said at last. "We're really going to abandon our village…"

"Its for the better," Ino said, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "This place won't miss us, that's for sure."

They exited their village, and leapt into the trees, putting as much distance behind them as possible. Hinata was at the lead, using her Byakugan to make sure they stayed clear of anyone who might be on that path. It wouldn't matter who saw them, if they were caught and reported, an alarm would be up in no time, and their chances of leaving the village would be ruined.

"Let's slow for a bit," Sakura said after about two hours of traveling. "As long as we keep moving, they shouldn't be able to catch up with us. We'll need our chakra." Everyone nodded and they made their way back down to the ground, "Sakura, where are we headed?" Ino asked after awhile. "What if the Akatsuki finds us… we could be killed…"

"Or recruited," Tenten pointed out. "We're missing nin now."

"The sooner they find us, the safer we'll be," Sakura answered eventually.

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**Words in Italics were flashbacks from hostage, and words in bold are from Inner Sakura, in case anyone was confused. Please review! **

**Sakura-baka **


	3. Chapter 3

**D: sorry Tsu-shishou and Naru-chan… didn't mean to worry you guys… I refuse to apologize to Harly. Not that she'd ever read this anyway…**

**Recap:**

"Sakura, where are we headed?" Ino asked after awhile. "What if the Akatsuki finds us… we could be killed…"

"Or recruited," Tenten pointed out. "We're missing nin now."

"The sooner they find us, the safer we'll be," Sakura answered eventually.

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Ino stopped dead in her tracks, "Akatsuki finding us is safe?" she screeched. "Sakura have you lost your mind?"

When Sakura didn't answer, Hinata did. "W-which one was it?"

A pause. Tenten and Ino looked back and forth between their friends, waiting for one to explain what was going on.

"I… don't know what you're talking about, Hinata-chan."

"You d-didn't lose your mind… after being kidnapped. You were better when you c-came back home…. So who w-was it?"

Eyes went to a still silent Sakura.

"We're wasting time stopping," the pink-haired woman finally said.

"I'm not budging a step until you tell us what's going on," Ino said, Tenten nodding in agreement.

"Sakura-chan… fell in l-l-love," Hinata said quietly. "With someone in the A-Akatsuki."

If her friends weren't going to walk, it didn't mean she had to pause. She wanted to get as far away from the village as possible, and in order to do that she would have to keep moving. And so she did, she walked past her friends, refusing to meet their eyes. This was a sure way to prove that what Hinata had said was true, but she didn't care. She would keep walking, she wouldn't respond, she'd keep to her goal, she was determined. She didn't count on what words would leave Ino's mouth next.

"It was Sasuke-kun's brother, wasn't it?"

Sakura was glad she wasn't facing her companions, she didn't want them to see the tears that momentarily welled up. She did love him, she really did. However, he didn't return her affection, it seemed to be a family trait.

"_Now it's time for you to give up on your foolish fantasy that involves us and a happily ever after. You know that's never going to be a possibility no matter how much time you waste dreaming about it."_

"Itachi."

She didn't realize she'd said it until she felt her mouth close. She didn't notice that a tear had slid down her cheek until a hand brushed it away. She didn't comprehend that it wasn't her own until she felt the arm it was attached to wrap around her shoulders. What she did know was that no matter what, she was going to see him again.

"Sakura… you didn't kill him… did you?"

"I did," she said truthfully. By all medical standards, he would be clinically dead for a short amount of time.

She continued walking, and her friends began to follow. They weren't sure how long they walked, but they did so in silence. A silence that reminded Sakura forcefully of Itachi… she had told her friends that she had killed him. Yet if the Akatsuki did find them, they would see him. She had lied to her friends ever since she had return to Konoha, in fact she was good at it. But she had never expected her friends to find out about it… she had never even thought about it.

Maybe she should have planned this… but it seemed to be a bit late now. When the time came, she would tell her friends exactly what happened. But for now, all she would worry about is getting her friends to safety… and it seemed to her the only safe place would be the Akatsuki hideout, however, getting there would prove challenging.

It had been a long time since she had walked the path with Itachi, and then back with Naruto and the other members of her rescue committee, and for all she knew they could have moved by now. But she kept walking. She had passed the line of no return, and turning back would surely lead to their downfall.

The sun was rising, their only indication of how long they had been gone. In a few short hours the citizens of their former village would be waking up to start their day. In two more their absence would be made clear. By noon they would be declared missing nin.

"Should we stop here to r-rest?" Hinata's timid voice asked.

"No," Sakura said. "They'll be sending search parties eventually… we need to keep moving. We already wasted a lot of time.

"So… where _are _we moving to? Sure Sakura's planning on going to join the Akatsuki or whatever, but we don't know where that is…."

No one answered, just continued walking. Another hour or so later, another question was asked.

"How do you find them?" Tenten spoke, her voice casual and slightly bored.

"They usually find you… they'll be hidden well, so whenever they decide to make themselves… known… this is coincidental to the point of insanity," Sakura said looking strait ahead. "There is no way… no… this is too easy. DEIDARA-SAN?"

"Who are you, yeah?"

"Its Sakura!"

He walked closer, a hunched over man following him. "Sakura … what are you doing here?"

"I… wanted to…"

"She abandoned her village," the other man spoke.

"Why? I thought you loved that place, yeah."

"We can talk about that later," she said urgently. "For now we need to hide before we're discovered. Can we join you guys?"

"I think that's kind of against rules, yeah… but I don't know, Sakura. It should be ok."

"Thank you Deidara!"

"Sakura-chan is on a first name basis with the Akatsuki," Tenten said, putting a hand on her forehead. "I think I've finally realized how serious this situation is."

"Who are they?" the partner asked.

"They're my friends, now can we please get moving…"

Deidara nodded and began walking, signaling for the others to follow. After a bit of walking he and the man beside him had a hushed argument, Sakura thought it best not to interrupt, and held her friends back a few paces so that they couldn't be accused of listening in.

They traveled for awhile Deidara and Sasori going at a slow pace that worried each of the girls. Sakura nervously fidgeted, Hinata pushed her index fingers together while looking around with her bloodline activated, Ino was quiet and still yet kept shooting glances at Sakura as if waiting for her to answer a question she hadn't asked, and Tenten walked ahead with her eyes forward. Each of them had a shared though, 'why aren't we going any faster?! We could be discovered!'

"Not much farther, yeah." Deidara said after awhile. Sakura noted how his partner hesitated when this was announced.

'They don't trust us…' she realized. Of course, it would be foolish of them if they did. All that Deidara had ever heard from her was how much she loved her village and missed it, and now she was asking if she could stay with them, with three additional well-trained kounichi. That seemed suspicious even to her. She doubted that even the two of them were always pleased with being a part of the Akatsuki… they might even have been forced into it.

"We're not here as spies, Deidara-san." Sakura said, though she thought the statement should probably be directed to the person beside him. "We have no intention of betraying you… we've already done that to our village."

"Yet you say that with no accusation," the partner finally spoke. "It would seem that you've already guessed that it would be brought up, seems even more suspicious. Or did you just have an idea what we were discussing? A trait of a good spy."

"Who are you?"

"Sasori."

"I thought as much… Itachi says you have a lovely cookie recipe."

Deidara laughed, Sakura's friends exchanged odd looks, and Sasori remained silent for the rest of the journey.

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**Personally I found the chapter somewhat weak… I'm sorry for that, but I really wasn't sure how they should be found… so it just kind of happened. Flames are accepted, I would do the same myself…**

**Sakura-baka**


	4. Chapter 4

**For Tsu-shishou-chan-hime-sama, because I like saying that, and she made me update. Even though she made me go a minute without yaoi…**

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"You guys wait here, yeah. I'll go find whoever's supposed to be taking care of new recruits."

Each of the girls nodded and took in their surroundings. They seemed to be in the main entrance, and all around them were various hallways leading to who knows where. They waited there for awhile, each too deep in thought to speak. They were actually ready to join an organization filled with S-class criminals… all because a village didn't give them enough credit. Sure it irritated them, but was it really to an extreme that they wanted to actually abandon it forever? Sakura had said herself that she hated the time she spent as a hostage… so why were they doing this?

Why were they risking so much, just so that people would take them seriously? What if they weren't accepted into Akatsuki? They were criminals in the eyes of Konoha, so there was no going back home. This was their only chance, and they didn't know if it would work out in their favor. And if they didn't make it in the Akatsuki, they wouldn't just get sent on their way… they knew the location of the hideout, and that was information they wouldn't let just anyone have. If they didn't get in, they'd be killed.

"Guy in charge is on a mission, yeah," Deidara said as he made his way back to the entrance. "So I guess you guys can stay here for now… I'll show you what rooms to use, yeah." He went down a hallway to their left, pointing out random rooms every so often. When he reached the end of the hallway pointed to either side of him. "These two rooms, and these two rooms are empty. You guys can pick who gets which one, yeah."

He walked away, yelling over his shoulder how to find the kitchen when they were done.

"And when we can't find it, we have the Byukgan," Ino muttered, walking into the room closest to her. Sakura entered hers, wondering briefly if it was the same one she had used on her previous stay in the hide out.

_Though it's probably not even the same hideout, _she thought. _After the last one was discovered, they're sure to have moved._

She sat her things down, not bothering to unpack just yet. There wouldn't be much of a point to get comfortable if they were just going to be sent away… or worse.

"Sakura-chan," Tenten called. "There's someone here to see you."

"And for some odd reason," Ino's angry sounding voice added. "He's alive."

"Ita…chi…" she walked out of her new room, to find the last Uchiha standing there, his face void of emotion as it always seemed to be.

"Sakura," he said calmly. His glowing red eyes never leaving hers.

"I didn't… I mean… you're here…" Sakura felt her eyes fill up with tears.

"Strange," Itachi said. "The Sakura I remember had trouble _not _speaking…"

She hugged him. It wasn't planned, and she didn't remember actual thought being involved. She just knew she had her arms wrapped around him and silent tears were leaking out of her eyes.

She was vaguely aware of what Ino was saying ("S-S-S-Sakura is hugging… I think I'm going to faint."), and wasn't even aware that time was still moving until Itachi gently pried her off of him.

"Now is not the time, Sakura," he said. "Why are you here?"

"We want to join the Akatsuki," Tenten answered for her.

"Then you've doomed yourself."

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**Its short, but I have writer's block. And feel the need to keep you guys in suspense… or something…**Sakura-baka 


	5. Chapter 5

**First few paragraphs are basically review from what happened in the first story for those who hadn't read it, or those who might have forgotten something… feel free to skip it if you don't want to read it.**

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Itachi glared at her, his crimson eyes seeming to glow in the poorly lit hallway. They doomed themselves? What was that supposed to mean? Sakura tried to ask, but something seemed to be blocking her voice box and words refused to come out. So many questions were buzzing around in her head, yet she couldn't ask even one. There was something about his stare, she decided, that made it impossible to speak properly while looking at you that intently. There was no other explanation for her lack of words.

And why was it directed at her? Her friends had also abandoned their village and chose to live with that decision. So why was Itachi singling her out? Yet another question she couldn't find it within herself to ask. It was starting to annoy her. Even when she had first met Itachi she had managed to mouth off to him. To insult him, tease him, make sarcastic comments… she'd had to for her own sake. If she let fear consumer her like she'd wanted desperately to do, she wouldn't have survived her time as a hostage. She'd made up stories about him and his partner and yelled them so the other members could use it against him if they wanted. She had scolded him for having no manners, and had remarked that his parents should have taught him that. She had inquired what kind of recipes that the Akatsuki had traded.… All these things she'd done simply to torment him, and now that she seen him again, nothing could be said.

How long she stood there before her friends came to her rescue was a mystery. It could've been a split second, it could've been a few minutes. She just knew that eventually Ino asked one of the questions plaguing her mind. "We're… doomed?"

"Joining the Akatsuki isn't as simple as leaving your village and convincing Deidara to show you the hideout," he said, never breaking eye contact with the pink-haired woman. "If that's all it took then anyone could join. Akatsuki is for elite _criminals_. You four are anything but. If you leave for the village now, you might have time to save yourselves."

"We left that village," Hinata's small voice finally spoke. "Because people wouldn't acknowledge that we are elite… we're tired of people treating us like we're not good enough… we've all worked very hard to be as strong as we are now, and its about time it got acknowledged."

Hinata's voice started to shake as Itachi finally looked at her. She had managed to say the speech without stuttering and was sounding very confident, however once those eyes fell on her, she began to crumble.

"She's right," Tenten said, placing a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "We've worked way to hard for people to still be treating us like this. Sakura-chan, in addition to be the best medic there is, has enough strength to tear apart this entire fortress. Ino-chan can take over people's minds and they don't even notice she's there, finding out all kinds of information that she can report back as soon as she gets enough so an ambush can be planned. Hinata-chan has perfected the Byukagan—"

"She's a Hyuuga," Itachi interrupted. It didn't sound like much of a question when he said it… more like a command for information.

"Yes she is," Ino spoke up. "And she would've been the head of the Hyuuga clan. Any organization would be lucky to have her for their use. She's an excellent kounichi, medic, friend, and a very skilled fighter. She knows jyuuken, tenketsu and… stuff…" Ino lost her nerve when the red eyes were turned on her.

"Itachi-kun," Sakura said quietly. "If its against rules for us to get in, at least give Hinata a try. She needs this more than any of us."

"I will discuss it with Leader," he said before turning and walking away. The other girls walked into their temporary rooms, but Sakura stayed in the hallway, watching Itachi's retreating back. He was halfway around the corner when she finally got the courage to move and speak.

"Itachi! Wait!" Sakura ran down the hall to where he was, stopping in front of him slightly out of breath.

"What now?"

"I… I missed you… I really did… so even if we can't join, I'm glad I at least got to see you once more…."

"You're once again wasting you're time on foolish fantasies," he responded, already walking away.

"I'll make you believe it one day," she responded.

* * *

"What do you think the chances of them actually letting us stay are?" Tenten asked, leaning against the wall of Hinata's current room.

"Well…" Sakura began, trying to remember anything about the organization she'd ever heard. "Itachi and Kisame-san are a team, so I'm guessing that they travel in groups of two… so if we join that would make four teams a full cell… and I somehow doubt that there's many medics in the Akatsuki, so combine that with our talents…"

"And we should just pack our bags now," Ino finished for her. A collective sigh and a murmur of agreement passed through the group of friends.

"What do you think the chances Ino and Deidara-san are long lost cousins are?"

* * *

**Almost three pages… short, but I wanted to update before I left for vacation. So no update for at least a week.**

**Sakura-baka**


	6. Chapter 6

* * *

"It will be temporary."

Sakura was heavy. Itachi was surprised to find this, for she looked fairly small. However, he realized how wrong he was as she hung around his neck after jumping on him for his four word sentence. She was still wrapped around his neck as she thanked him repeatedly, her friends giggled in the background, and Deidara entered the room, trying not to laugh at the situation.

"Sakura-chan… you _do _realize you're still hugging him, right?" Tenten asked, grinning widely.

"Somehow I don't think she cares…" Ino said, admiring Itachi's inability to blush.

"This is the p-part where I say "I t-t-told you so"," Hinata said, not meeting anyone else's eyes.

"When you're done being a squeeze doll, Itachi-san," Deidara said. "Kisame is looking for you, yeah."

Itachi nodded, pried the pink haired woman off of him, and walked out of the room plotting ways to get even with the blond artist.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone get that close to him, yeah…."

Sakura smiled, unembarrassed about what she had just done. She had confessed her love to Sasuke a million times, so the only difference was the person and the fact that he didn't immediately push her off. That and he had a better smell than Sasuke had… she couldn't remember _what _Sasuke's exact scent was, but she knew she preferred Itachi's… it smelt like forest and some herb she couldn't place.

"You haven't introduced me to your friends, Sakura-san. That would be the polite thing to do since I led you here, yeah."

Sakura snapped out of her _important _internal ramble about the different smells of Uchiha brothers when she realized that Deidara was still in the room. "I'm sorry, Deidara-san. This is Tenten," said bun-haired girl nodded her head, "You're long lost cousin, Yamanaka Ino," Ino sent a death glare and Deidara titled his head in confusion. He had a cousin? "And, the girl hiding behind them is Uzu—Hyuuga Hinata." Sakura bit her lower lip; it seemed she had just got into the habit of introducing Hinata as an Uzumaki when it was changed back to Hyuuga. She didn't often make the mistake of using the wrong surname, but when she did she always felt full of regret. Poor Hinata had been through enough without one of her friends making her relive the memories.

"Why are you hiding, yeah?" No answer. "I'd shake your hand… but that's how the Byukagan works, right? And… well…" he held up his hands, revealing the mouth on each. "You're already afraid of harmless me, so I guess that would just make you terrified for life, yeah."

"You hurt his feelings, Hinata-chan," Tenten said, in mock concern.

"He might start adding 'nope' to the end of his phrases now," Ino muttered.

Deidara looked uncertain for a moment before turning to walk out of the room, surely these people were all insane. "Sorry, D-Deidara-san," a voice said, stopping him in his tracks. "I d-didn't mean t-t-to offend you."

"You're cute, yeah. You shouldn't try to hide."

* * *

"That was unprofessional."

"…Yeah."

"You have misrepresented the Akatsuki."

"Going to kick me out, yeah?"

Was that sarcasm or hope?

"They will only be here until Leader gives us an answer." A pause. "So don't get attached."

"I didn't see you in any hurry to get Sakura off of—" a kunai aimed at his head. "That could have killed me, yeah!"

"Hn."

Footsteps, a wait, and casually, "Did Kisame make you sleep on the couch or something?"

* * *

Sakura paced, Ino stared at the ceiling, Tenten looked dead, and Hinata pushed her index fingers together. They had been like that for the past half-hour, not moving once they got into their position of choice.

"Will you give it a rest already?" Ino finally snapped. "This was your plan and you're the one acting like we're about to be burned alive!"

"Which is fitting since Uchiha's specialize in fire jutsus," Tenten pointed out, not even opening her eyes.

"Still, we're in for awhile, shouldn't we be… I don't know, happy or something?"

The medic prodigy didn't answer at once, and never stopped her quest to destroy the floor. "They wouldn't just let us join the Akatsuki… there has to be a catch."

"Other than being classified as Missing-Nin?"

Sakura glared at her best friend, "You're not helping, Ino. And if you want to go back to Konoha," she paused to shoot a look at Tenten, "Or even Suna, then you could've said so in the first place and not come at all."

"You're not getting rid of us that easily," the bun-haired girl said. She sat up and stretched. After a wide yawn she turned to Hinata, "I'm jealous. He was cute."

* * *

**it's late, short, boring, and could be classified as a filler! yay! It's now just like the series!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Writer's block is an evil, evil thing… as well as ff… they took my hearts away! now I have to find a new way to separate the sections TT **

* * *

"Wake up, yeah! I made breakfast!"

"You liar, the only thing you did was make me do it," a new voice grumbled. Sakura sat strait up in her bed, and turned to the oh-so-familiar voice.

"KISAME-SAN!" she yelled before rushing out of bed and into the hallway where the two voices were coming from. "Kisame-san! I haven't seen you in ages!"

"People are usually happy about that, yeah…"

"What's all the… commotion…" Ino trailed off as she exited her room to see the odd trio standing there. "Is that a giant shark?"

"Kisame-san, this is Yamanaka Ino," Sakura said, cutting Ino off before she could offend Kisame anymore than she already had. Deidara on the other hand, had different plans.

"There's four of them, yeah," he said while laughing. "Itachi-san's got dibs on Sakura-chan, which means that there's really only three. I bet you're the only one not going to get one, Kisame, yeah."

Kisame grumbled something inaudible, and the two remaining kounichi exited their rooms to see what the fuss was about. "Morning Sakura-chan," Tenten said, yawning. "What's Ino-chan yelling about?"

"Nothing important, yeah," Deidara answered brightly. "She's just not used to Kisame yet."

"How do you get used to seeing a talking shark when you wake up!?" Ino shrieked at her look-a-like.

"Sakura-chan did, I did, Itachi-san sleeps with him… though not recently… explains his bad mood…."

"Itachi-san and I do _not_ sleep together," Kisame said through gritted teeth. "How many times do I have to tell you that?"

Deidara laughed and set off in the direction of the kitchen, seeming to enjoy having tortured Kisame, and possible, having new company. After a few moments of staring blankly at the spot where Deidara had left, everyone remembered where they were, and Sakura introduced everyone.

"So what's for breakfast, Kisame-san?"

"Himono."

* * *

Breakfast was an interesting affair to say the least. Kisame, as it turned out, was a terrible cook, and Hinata, who was always used to the delicious food served at the Hyuuga household, had turned a lovely shade of green, but was far too polite to walk away from the table and risk offending Kisame. Ino, who was used to eating with Chouji and Shikamaru, wasn't surprised by any form of food, and had simply ignored what it tasted like and started up an argument with Deidara. Sakura had mentioned that it was sibling rivalry, and it made Deidara angry enough that somewhere deep within the mansion an explosion was heard. The explosion was loud enough to wake Itachi (who had been on a long mission and was catching up on his beauty sleep), and he had stormed into the kitchen to find the group and simply turned around and left. Tenten pointed out that it must be weird to see such strange people sitting around, one blowing up a section of the building while arguing, one blue, another green, one laughing her head off, and a pink head being repeatedly smashed onto the table from all the commotion.

"We've managed to weird out Itachi-san, yeah… I feel like we've accomplished something."

"Maybe Sakura-chan should go talk to him," Tenten suggested brightly. "She's always been great at calming down Uchiha's…" she added below her breath.

"Yeah, yeah!"

"Was it _really _necessary to add 'yeah' to saying yeah?" Ino asked him.

When Sakura left the room to find the Sharingan Heir, Ino and Deidara were having another argument and Hinata was trying to break them up. Really, was it such a big deal about adding something to the end of your phrases? Maybe she was just used to it from being around… no, she couldn't think of him anymore. That hurt too much.

"Itachi?" she called when she realized she had no idea where she was going. She was used to bickering with Ino, so she shouldn't have done what Tenten suggested just to get away from her arguing with someone else. "Itachi where are you?"

"You shouldn't wander if you don't know where you're going," a voice answered. Sakura turned to see Sasori walking towards her, clearly on his way to the kitchen, whether to see his partner or actually eat something Sakura didn't know. "His room his down this hall, third door on the left."

"Thank you," Sakura said as she walked towards the room, hoping Sasori hadn't lied to her. She was two steps away when real paranoia set in, his left or hers? Logically the person giving directions would've given them as if going there, but even telling her _where _the room was seemed out of character for Sasori, who seemed to hate her and her friends. What if that wasn't the room at all? What if he just gave her some random set of directions and she ended up in some cannibal's room?!

**There are no cannibals in Akatsuki, get a hold of yourself. **Sakura shook herself, listened to her inner personality, and knocked on the door that Sasori had told her to go to. The handsome face of the last Uchiha greeted her, though at the moment he looked exhausted and slightly irritated.

"What do you want Sakura?"

"Is there anyone in the organization that eats people?" she blurted out, forgetting why she was tracking down Itachi in the first place.

Itachi nodded once and stepped out of the way, signaling that she was allowed to enter the room. She wandered briefly if his nod was answering her question, or simply showing that he knew what she meant by the odd inquiry.

* * *

**Anyone have any idea where I go from here? Because I sure don't….**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter is dedicated to Tsu-shishou for helping me! I swear she might as well write the whole story for how many ideas she gave me….**

**IxS IxS IxS**

"Sakura," he said once she was inside. "What are you doing here?"

Sakura shifted nervously, she hadn't really planed what to say… "Well… I have no idea; I just wanted to… talk." Itachi sighed and signaled for her to sit down.

"Do you want me to join the Akatsuki, Itachi?"

Itachi looked at her for a minute, his gleaming red eyes seemed to see through her. "No."

She hung her head, she'd expected the answer but it hurt nonetheless, "Why not?"

"You're not cut out for it. You'll get tired of this life just like you did of your village and leave. Only now you'll have nowhere else to turn to. You've now doomed you, and you've brought your friends down with you."

"T-t-tired of the village?!" Sakura just about yelled, shaking with anger. "You think I just- just decided that I'd join the Akatsuki one day! I never wanted to leave that village, I love that place. But those people… always underestimating us… it drove me insane."

"You were already insane."

Sakura looked as though he had smacked her across the face. Sure she knew she wasn't exactly normal, and she knew she suffered some emotional damage, but nobody had ever called her insane (well, not counting Konohmaru on occasion…).

"I can be strong. I can be strong enough for this organization. And even if I can't, then I'm sure there's no medic here. Hinata-chan, Ino, and I are all medics. We can help. Why aren't we good enough for you?"

Itachi didn't answer, just looked calmly at her. She was pacing once again, throwing her arms around in wild gestures to emphasize her anger. Angry tears were leaking out of her eyes, but she kept brushing them away in an attempt to hide them.

"If you're already crying, you don't belong in this organization."

"I don't care about the stupid organization! I came here because of you!"

"So you haven't matured at all. You're still having this fantasy. Dwelling on what ifs will only weaken you,"

"I've told you before, I don't care about happily ever after, I just want to know. _Could _you have _ever _loved me?"

"I've answered you before."

"No, we were interrupted, now tell me."

Itachi closed his eyes for a moment, nodded a bit to himself, and opened his mouth to speak. Fate was against them.

"Itachi-san," Kisame said, barging into the room. "We're under attack."

Itachi and Sakura ran out of the room, meeting up with their breakfast group huddled around a door. Hinata was shaking and had her fist up to her mouth, Ino was extremely pale, and Tenten was arguing with Sasori.

"This was not a trap! We're just as surprised as you are!"

"Lies! This was an ambush!"

"I think they're telling the truth, yeah," Deidara said, looking from Ino to Hinata. "These two are too scared for it to be planed."

"Or they're great actors," Sasori countered.

"Sakura," Itachi cut in. "Was this planned?"

She shook her head repeatedly, "No we had no idea they were planning this. We haven't been in contact with them, we didn't even find the hideout ourselves; we had to get Deidara-san to help us."

"There you have it, Sasori. They didn't plan this." He believed her.

"Fine," Sasori said harshly. "You brats ready to prove yourself? If the four of you can get rid of these Konoha shinobi, then you can start the tests to get in."

"So killing our friends is a pretest," Tenten muttered darkly. "What do you have to do normally? Kill your family?"

"All except your brother." Tenten flinched; she didn't realize Itachi was still standing there.

"So we just have to get rid of them, right?" Sakura asked. Itachi nodded in response. "Simple enough…."

"IF YOU JUST GIVE US BACK OUR FRIENDS WE'LL LEAVE YOU ALONE!"

"Naruto! Shut up," that was Kakashi. Sakura felt her heart sinking. "Uchiha Itachi, we know you have Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata and Tenten, bring them out right now and we won't attack."

"Can't say no to that, come on Itachi-kun," Sakura said grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the door. Her friends' expressions would've been funnier if it was under different circumstances. She pushed open the door, Itachi a step behind her, and was greeted by bright sunlight.

"Sakura-chan! Kakashi-sensei its Sakura-chan!" Naruto attempted to run towards her, but Kakashi held out an arm.

"It could be a trap. We have no proof that is even the real Sakura."

"Sakura-chan! Who am I?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," Sakura answered easily. "Birthday October 10th, blood type B, previously part of Team 7 with Hatake Kakashi-sensei, Uchiha Sasuke-kun, and me."

"See!" Naruto said impatiently, "That's Sakura-chan!"

"Everybody knows who Team 7 was, and Itachi was in the village when you were born. Everybody knows that information Naruto."

"You have a son. You have full custody after the divorce with one Hyuuga Hinata. He looks just like you except for his eyes which are clearly Byukagan. When he was born I gave him an orange teddy bear." Kakashi nodded.

"What will it take to get her and her friends back?"

Itachi said nothing, just looked expectantly at Sakura. This was her mission, and she hadn't really done anything. She also didn't bring backup and there was no way she'd be able to single-handedly fight off the two men in front of them, let alone the squad behind them. "I came here on my own, Kakashi-sensei."

"No!" Naruto yelled, his brilliant blue eyes blazing. "You'd never do that to us Sakura-chan! You wouldn't!"

"I'm sorry Naruto… I really am…"

"WHY ARE YOU LEAVING THEN?!" his eyes were welling up and Sakura's sinking heart was starting to break. "He's making you? He's making you isn't he! The bastard that killed Sasuke! It's entirely fault!"

"Itachi did nothing wrong," she said. "He's not making me do anything… if anything he doesn't want me to be here."

"You're lying!" Naruto yelled again while Kakashi looked like he'd lost yet another one of his important people. He was down to Naruto.

"I'm sorry Naruto… but this is the way it is now."

"He's making you stay! I know he is!"

"Naruto," said Kakashi, his voice shaky. "Look at her hands." Naruto paled slightly at the sight of his former crush, teammate, and best friend, holding the hand of the man who had killed his now dead rival.

He shook his head muttering how it was all just a trick and that Sakura was still under Itachi's control. Breaking his heart was something she'd done before, but she couldn't stand to see him trying to lie to himself. She knew it would kill him, and possibly her, but she did the only thing she could do to convince him. She turned towards her silent companion, stood on her toes to wrap her arms around Itachi and kiss him. He didn't respond in any way, he just stood there as surprised and the people around them. She sank back to her feet, "I won't apologize for that," escaped her lips so that only he could hear her.

Silence.

A minute later Neji seemed to break out of the trance, "What about Hinata-sama and Tenten?" he asked.

"They're inside somewhere… not coming out…"

Naruto walked up to his former teammate, eyes glazed over. He grabbed the forehead protector from out of her hair, pulled out a kunai and stabbed it. He then silently walked away, dropping the now scared thing on the ground as he walked.

**IxS IxS IxS**

**I figured out a new way to separate chapters. It depends on pairing is featured (and still its Tsu-shishou's idea…)! Well there you have it, ItaSaku kiss that's (hopefully) in character! Please review!**

**Saku-baka**


	9. Chapter 9

Note: I did _not _write this entire chapter (or the following chapters) by myself. I had a _lot _of help from the awesome Tsu-shishou (known here as LilBitzer); she practically wrote the entire beginning. So I'd like to say, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! to her for all her help!

I want to write more ItaSaku but I promised people some DeiHina so here it goes…

**DxH DxH DxH**

"What's going on out there," Tenten asked when Sakura and Itachi reentered, Sakura's forehead protector in her hand; she couldn't help but stare at the new hole in the once smooth surface. "Sakura what happened?" she asked but received no response. Sakura walked past everyone and glanced over her left shoulder.

"Konoha won't be bothering us anymore." She glanced at her friends with a false smile and they took the hint.

Sakura lifted her hand with her forehead protector and looked at the hole, 'We betrayed them, so why does it hurt to know that I can never go back?' She started walking again not caring where she was going and not knowing a certain Uchiha was following her.

DxH DxH DxH 

Deidara left the room, walking aimlessly down various hallways, glancing around wondering vaguely where he was headed. Then he realized that he had just left the three kounichi with his partner… a partner that _hated _them…

Quickly turning around he noticed the short purple haired girl walking towards him. 'Hinabi, Himati, um, Hinata, yeah! Yes, that was her name she looks shy but seems like she could become really strong.' Hinata glanced up at Deidara at the same time he looked at her and their eyes connected.

Deidara felt himself drawn to the lavender-tinted pale eyes and Hinata couldn't tear her gaze away from the captivating blue of Deidara's visible eye. Her heart fluttered, and for a moment she couldn't figure out why. She was also sure her face would be slightly red by now… 'He has Naruto-kun's eyes….'

"Hyuuga Hinata, right? Do you want to go, um, train with me, yeah?" Deidara asked with a huge grin on his face and scratched the nape of his neck.

"Um, s-sure," she answered, her blush deepening. She silently cursed herself, she was acting like a gennin again and it was slightly unnerving… he'd just asked her to train, and surely that would help her join the organization. The blond was nice to all of them, they surely wouldn't have found the hideout if it wasn't for him… he probably liked the new company. She shouldn't take any of this personally.

'You shouldn't be thinking this much into it at all,' she reminded herself.

"So what kind of fighting do you use, yeah?" Deidara asked as he led the way down the hallway to what Hinata assumed was towards some training ground. "I'm more of a long distance fighter, yeah. It keeps my enemies far away so that I can use my art freely. But you use the Byukagan, right? So you're probably better at hand-to-hand combat, yeah."

Hinata nodded and Deidara grinned, clearly proud of himself for figuring all of this out.

He continued to jabber away about training and such as he led the way down the maze that made up the hideout.

Once outside Hinata felt her heart skip multiple beats before sinking. This wasn't happening… Sakura had said that they weren't going to bother them… so how were they there?

Deidara seemed to be thinking along the same lines, "Who are you and how did you guys get here, yeah?"

"Hinata-sama, I have orders to bring you home," her cousin said coldly. "You are the Hyuuga heiress, you cannot simply turn your back on that."

"You n-never wanted m-m-me as the heiress anyway… n-n-none of you d-did."

"She's with us now, yeah."

"You're going to abandon your home," a female voice said. "And our family… nee-san?"

"Ha-Hanabi?" Hinata felt sick to her stomach… this wasn't right. Her sister? Here? This had to be some kind of trick. The Hokage wouldn't send someone so young on such a dangerous mission.

Deidara looked back and forth between the three Hyuugas, not sure what to do. He didn't think that the girl beside him would be able to take out the two she was speaking to, not from lack of skill, but she'd said this was her sister. There was no way she would attack her family, he was sure of that… but the mission for them was to get rid of the Konoha nin that were planning on attack the organization. Sakura had managed to get rid of some of them, but he had once heard Itachi say that his father had drilled it into his mind that if the choice between the village and the clan ever came up, he was to stay loyal to the clan. Surely that was the same for the Hyuuga clan, after all they were now the most powerful. "Hinata-chan isn't going anywhere, yeah," he said when the trembling girl wasn't answering.

A humorless laugh was heard; one he didn't recognize. "My little Hinata-koi is going to leave us?"

"I'm n-n-n-not yours," she whispered to her feet. Deidara's mind started to race, 'Hinata-koi', was she married? No… she said she wasn't his… who was this guy?

"Just come on home," the voice said again, Deidara still couldn't figure out where it was coming from and who was talking. "You and Sakura-chan don't really belong here."

"Or Tenten," Neji whispered.

"W-we came b-because w-we wanted to, Naruto-kun."

Naruto stepped out of a shadow, his eyes red and slightly swollen. "Why? And how?! How could you want to be with these," he pointed to Deidara, "criminals?! They killed Sasuke! How could you and Sakura-chan… WHY ARE YOU LEAVING US?!"

"Should've made their stay at your village more enjoyable, yeah," Deidara said, his eye narrowed. "Then maybe you wouldn't have to worry about such things."

Naruto looked like he was going to charge the man in front of him, but the girl spoke again, "They killed my fiancé, nee-san. And you're going to stay with them?"

Hinata's pale face was pointed down, her bangs hiding her eyes. Her sister had always known just what to say to make her feel whatever feeling she wanted. She knew how to make her feel angry, useless, happy, jealous, and now guilty. She was a miniature Neji. But she wouldn't win this time, Hinata was older, she could stand up to her younger sister. "Yes Hanabi," she said quietly. "I'm going to stay here."

Deidara was impressed at the courage in her voice, even if her body language didn't match, he had a slight suspicion that she might be crying. He pulled some clay out of a bag, "Are you going to leave, or do you want to admire my art?"

Naruto jumped away, seemingly too upset to fight at the moment. He'd lost too much, and the emotional stress seemed to be unable to control himself. Neji looked furious and his voice trembled as he swore he would return and bring the kounichi home. Hanabi glared at her sister, walked forward and gentle-fisted her forehead protector before walking off. Deidara had to catch the girl as she fell; she knew wearing the thing around her neck would eventually come back to haunt her. The man was telling her something, but she couldn't make out exactly what it was, she just knew that she was struggling to breathe.

DxH DxH DxH 

**I know there's not a lot of action, but if there wasn't it wouldn't fit the series ;) Just so everyone knows, Hinata **_**will **_**be ok, but having someone punch a piece of metal hard against your throat… well you'll have a bruise and a bit of trouble. But I promise she will be ok… eventually. **


	10. Chapter 10

**I cannot write Sasori. I just can't. I can write Tobi though… why didn't I make this post-death TT**

**SxT SxT SxT**

"I'm g-going to go w-w-w-wander around," Hinata said, as Sakura walked away, Itachi following at a safe distance.

"Sure leave us here with the guy that despises us," Ino muttered, as she noticed that the blond artist was also missing.

"Its not that he doesn't like us," Tenten said, completely ignoring the fact that the person they were talking about was standing right beside them. "He just doesn't trust us in any way shape or form. And yeah… he does kind of hate us…."

"Keep talking about me like that and you'll see just how much hate I possess." Suddenly there was a girl standing over his shoulder, poking him with a dull kunai. "What kind of weapons does this thing have?"

"Ones that hurt people. Stop poking me."

"You can't feel it, this isn't skin…" he grunted in response, and she frowned. "What _is _this made of?"

"Wood."

Tenten nodded to herself and stepped away from the puppet master. Ino was leaning against a wall, looking very bored at the situation. "What kind of weapons _do _you have?" Tenten asked again.

"A large amount. Now leave me alone."

The bun-haired girl studied him for a moment, "You're always hunched over, wouldn't that hurt your back?"

"No."

"No I guess you wouldn't… who'd ever heard of Sasori of the Red Sand, famous missing nin from Suna, specializing in puppets, and according to Sakura-chan, cookie recipes having a flaw such as back problems."

Sasori stared at her for a moment, not entirely sure if he should be impressed or horrified that the girl knew that information when he had no memory of ever telling her about that. She seemed to enjoy watching his confusion. Ino on the other hand, wasn't as pleased as having a 'house' mate hating her and her friends.

"Sabaku no Kankuro. He and Tenten-chan dated for about a month… I'm sure you were mentioned."

Tenten half glared at her friend, "Yeah, he told me that you were how he got his puppets or something… I don't remember all the specifics."

Sasori nodded, "Weapons?"

Tenten's face lit up, "I'm a weapons expert. Never miss a target."

He sighed, if he was going to have to live with these people, might as well make an effort to get along with them, "Would you like to check out the weaponry in my puppets?" He had a slight suspicion that if she was anyone else she would've jumped on him. Turning to a hallway to their left, he began walking, signaling for the kunoichi to follow.

After a bit of walking a tall blue man came running up to them, "Something's wrong with Hyuuga-san."

SxT SxT SxT 

Hinata was aware of voices surrounding her. She couldn't remember who they belonged to, but she was realizing that she also couldn't open her eyelids.

"She's awake, yeah!" she heard someone exclaim.

"Don't yell, Deidara-san," someone else said.

She opened her lavender eyes to find a small group of people crowded around her, leaning forward to get a better look. She let out a scream… well it was supposed to be a scream. No sound came out.

"You've probably lost your voice," Sakura said to her. "I healed your throat the best I could, but it'll be sore for a day or two. You should be able to talk soon, I just don't know when."

She nodded, mouthed a thank you, and accepted a glass of water Ino was handing her.

"I could've seen some really awesome weapons if it wasn't for you," Tenten joked, clearly relieved that her friend was all right.

"So what exactly happened?" Ino asked. "Deidara-san couldn't tell us much."

Hinata glanced at Deidara, before turning to Ino, careful to avoid Sakura's eye. 'Hanabi,' she mouthed. Sakura's jaw clenched.

SxT SxT SxT 

**Next chapter will be longer, promise.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry the update was so late! I was sick and planning weddings for people (and ignoring them when they said they weren't going to marry each other…) so I didn't have a chance to write anything! Also keep an eye out for a oneshot that I'm going to write someday about Sasori/Hinata/Deidara. Or amv… maybe both…**

**SxH SxH SxH (gonna confuse you guys with that one)**

Sakura had left the room as quickly as possible. The subject at hand was too much for her at the moment. She had left the village. Hanabi shouldn't have come.

"You're mission," Sasori said when a few people got ready to follow their pink-haired friend. "Is to heal Deidara's arm. Only you two," he added, pointing at Ino and Hinata. "The weapons girl has no medical talent."

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that," Ino snapped. She didn't want to be a medic. She hated it. The fact that she was going to be forced to prove herself worthy by healing someone was hitting a very sensitive spot.

"We'll f-fix it," Hinata said soothingly to Ino. "And then later you can sh-show them what a g-great spy you are, and they'll n-n-never make you heal anything else again."

Ino nodded to her friend, and grabbed Deidara's arm, examining it carefully. "What did you do to it?"

"I was on a mission, yeah. And I needed to kidnap the Kazekage, and while we were—"

"THAT WAS YOU?!" Hinata jumped a few inches in the air, Ino turned wide eyed, Deidara flinched, and Sasori took a step away from the brown haired girl.

"What are you talking about, yeah?!"

"_You _were the one that did that to Gaara-san?!" Tenten shrieked. Deidara nodded slowly, looking as if he regretted moving at all. "Kankuro-kun had nightmares about it for ages! And it was all _your _fault!"

Tenten reached into her weapons pouch and was about to horribly maim the blond artist, when several things happened. Sasori grabbed onto Tenten's arm, Deidara let out a shriek of pain, Ino laughed, Hinata started muttering apologizes as fast as she could, and Tenten dropped her kunai in confusion. Here was a sight all too strange. Hinata stood, slightly blushing, with a handful of gold hair in her left hand, "I'm so s-sorry Deidara-san… b-but I was sure you w-w-w-wouldn't have let me pull your hair out if you weren't d-distracted…."

"Of course not! Why the hell would you do that, yeah!"

Ino stopped laughing and comprehension dawned on her face, "To fix your arm."

Hinata nodded, "Ino-chan did it in the ch-chunnin exams… I thought we could use the same principle to heal your a-arm." Deidara's face brightened, so she hadn't just yanked out his precious hair because she hated him!

"And because K-Kankuro-san's s-sleepless nights should be a-avenged." He thought too soon.

Ino smirked, "Then should I pull Tenten-chan's hair too? I'm sure poor Kankuro lost a bit of sleep because of her as well." 

Tenten opened her mouth to either protest, or question Ino's innocence (or a combination of both, who knows) when a rather gruff voice cut across. "Shouldn't you be on a _mission._ If you have time to mindlessly gossip than you should be healing Deidara's arm. Akatsuki does not have time for pointless things such as this."

"You're r-right… sorry Sasori-san," Hinata muttered, turning back to Deidara's arm.

"Don't _you _apologize," said Ino crossly. "You were working. And stop stuttering, he's ugly not scary." Hinata hid her smile and together she and Ino got to work on healing the artist's injured limb. While the previous attachment was done well enough to hold, if it was ever pulled hard enough it would come off and be extremely painful. But by using his own hair to hold together the skin and flesh, it would eventually heal completely and he'd never have to worry about it again.

**SxH SxH SxH**

Two days later Sakura still hadn't left her room. People regularly went in to try to talk to her, but she refused to speak to them. Itachi stayed in her room the longest out of all of them, including Ino who said that she was just too short tempered to stay and be ignored by Sakura for long.

Itachi also refused to let anyone bring her meals besides him. Her friends had volunteered often, but he ignored them. Though they did go and tell her she needed to come out of there and was being childish often, mealtime they were forbidden to enter.

"It was his job when she was… here last time," Kisame explained one day when the kounichi was well as Sasori and Deidara were eating dinner. "Old habits die hard, kind of thing."

"She needs to get over her self pity soon," Sasori said bluntly. "We'll be leaving in a few days, Leader needs to see them."

"I'm still not sure what the big deal is, yeah. Sure Hinata-san was hurt, but that doesn't mean she needs to be so upset…. She must really want to look out for you, yeah."

"It's only because it's the younger Hyuuga," said a voice from the doorway. "Sakura has always held a grudge against the girl. For her to show up, where she's come to hide, and attack her friend must bring up a lot of old memories that Sakura obviously wants to forget."

"Wow Uchiha-san," said Ino, her clear blue eyes wide in surprise. "How do you know Sakura so well? I thought she only talked to us about that kind of thing."

Itachi didn't answer, simply set a tray filled with food down on the counter, letting it hit the surface a little harder than what was needed. "She used to talk to Itachi all the time," said Kisame. "He'd be in her room for long periods of time and never tell us what was going on. And when he didn't show up to give her food, Sakura-chan would get anxious and start asking questions about him. I used to think they were having an affair until the inside jokes started popping up."

Itachi glared at the blue man.

"Like cookie recipes?" Sasori said, glaring at nothing in particular.

"Yeah," Kisame said, grinning. "And that time that Deidara made her the sculpture and Itachi told him he had to get rid of it and almost cut his arms off… though you didn't need to make it explode," he added. "Oh, and she kissed him…"

"WHAT?!" Ino yelled.

"When she had to leave—"

"Look at all of you," snapped Tenten. "Getting angry at _us _for gossiping, when that's exactly what everyone's doing while Sakura-chan is in a state of depression! Uchiha-san is the only one here that's been consistently doing something helpful, what are we doing? None of us are actually going to make her feel better, so we're just going to sit around and discuss what a mess she is?"

She looked around the room, waiting for someone to question what she had said. Tenten herself had always felt a bit out of the group of her friends; she was a year older than they were, and not as close as Ino and Sakura would ever be. She was close with Hinata, if only because her cousin spoke of her often while they were on the team. So it upset her that no one else seemed to be taking this as seriously as they should have. Finally someone spoke.

"I'll talk to her… I know what she needs to hear."

**SxH SxH SxH**

"Sakura-chan, are you ok?"

The pink haired girl didn't look up to see her visitor. She wasn't in the mood to talk to her friend at the moment, especially that particular one. "Sakura-chan… I know you're upset, but I think its time you… you should know… why it happened."

Sakura didn't acknowledge that she was listening. She felt slightly guilty about it, after all, her friend must have worked up a lot of nerve to manage to say this much without stuttering, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with Hyuugas. She had come here to get away from her old life, and now that Hanabi knew where they were, Hinata seemed more like a link to that life than a friend.

"I know you're awake… j-just please… at least listen t-to the other side of the story." Hinata leaned against a wall a distance away from Sakura's bed and slid down to the floor. She bowed her head slightly, took a deep breath, and began the longest speech Sakura had ever heard her say.

"Hanabi's life was n-never easy. She's stronger than I am, by a lot. Everyone knows that. She'd make a b-b-better Hyuuga Head than I ever would have… but she was born second. Because of f-five years she's going to have to have a h-horrible fate for the rest of her life. Since she is younger than me, she'll b-be placed in the Branch Family. She will have to have the c-curse seal placed on her forehead, as well as all of her children….

"I don't want that for my sister. That was one of the reasons why I choose to l-leave with you. She won't have to give up the freedom of the Main House, while the Clan w-w-will have a suitable l-l-leader. I won't have to hear countless times why I'm g-going to fail. And you didn't have to come here alone… really everybody wins," Hinata had silent tears streaking down her face, but she kept her voice as steady as possible.

"But before you were k-kidnapped, that wasn't an option. There was no doubt at all that when she was older imouto-chan would be p-placed in the Branch House. There she would live out the rest of her life as a servant to the Main House… to me. Strong, capable, smart, and confident Hanabi w-would have to serve as a lesser member, just as Neji-niisan had t-to. It's the vicious cycle of the Hyuuga Clan. It doesn't matter who's more capable, it matters who has the birth right."

"I already know all of this," Sakura snapped. She wasn't in the mood to hear of the faults with the Hyuuga Clan, or listen to Hanabi's sob story. Why should Sakura care what happened to the little brat? The source of her unhappiness being looked down upon didn't sound like too bad of a trade at the moment.

"Then you know why the marriage was arranged?"

Sakura sat up in spite of herself. "Arranged?" she gasped. "What do you mean arranged? Sasuke-kun proposed and Hanabi said yes. Not much more arranging than that!"

Hinata shook her head sadly and continued with her sister's story, "Sasuke-kun met Hanabi because of the r-relationship between Uzumaki-san and myself… because of that, he already knew a great d-deal about the Hyuuga Clan, and that included the Byukgan. So when he knew I had a sister, he was thrilled… in the few t-times that the two of us had had an actual conversation, Hanabi had never come up, and so he knew n-nothing about her. You know very well what happened then…."

"He wanted to marry her… have extremely strong children that would be worthy of the name Uchiha," said Sakura bitterly, fists clenched. "And along the way he did actually fall in love with her, didn't he?" Hinata nodded.

"And outo-sama was thrilled at the idea as well. So he m-made a deal with Hanabi… he told her that if she married him, she wouldn't be put into the Branch House… he wanted to see the Sharingan mix with the Byukgan as much as Sasuke-kun did. She wanted nothing to do with Sasuke-kun… in fact; she always looked up to you. Apprentice of the Godaime, skilled medic, and super strength… Hanabi wished she could d-do that, though she was never into healing. Still you were a role model for her, weather sh-she'd admit it or not. She never wanted to do anything that would upset you, Sakura-chan." Hinata stood back up, and for a moment Sakura believed she was going to leave her for a bit, but she let out a small laugh instead.

"I guess none of that matters anymore. You hated imouto-chan for stealing Sasuke-kun from you, and the only w-way that she would've been able to refuse is if I left. But the only reason I left was because you moved on. Ironic isn't it?"

The pale-eyed girl left the room, and Sakura sank back into her bed. Hinata didn't lie, she never had. Sakura herself was great at lying, but Hinata had always failed at it. So there was no way that she was making all of this up, but at the same time, it was far too bizarre to be true. Getting out of the Branch Family just by marrying someone else? Surely that was against all kinds of rules! There was no way the Hyuuga's would allow such a thing… was there? Sakura realized that she didn't know much about Hyuuga pollicies, so maybe that was allowed. Hinata's father _was _head of the Clan, so he could do whatever he wanted. But still….

"There's no point in worrying about it now. Sasuke's dead. Hanabi might have been innocent of this but it doesn't matter anymore. I'm…" she paused and stared blankly at the ceiling… she had never voiced the next words that would've escaped her mouth. Ever. But, the sooner she admitted it, the sooner she could move on… "I, Haruno Sakura, am over Uchiha Sasuke."

"About time."

**SxH SxH SxH**

**Ok, so I have to explain something. This story is slightly AU in the sense that while Sakura never met Sasori, the Rescue Gaara Arc still happened. You can decide for yourself how it happened… Sakura had a cold and didn't go on the mission works just as well as some complicated explanation would.**

**Also, when Ino was being 'rude' to Hinata about her apologizing, it was simply to help Hinata. I see her as having really low self esteem, so Ino was simply making a joke out of the whole thing to make her feel better, not making fun of her. **

**Sakura-baka**


	12. Chapter 12

**For those of you wondering, Ino's not-so-mystery man will be revealed in the next chapter when I have more information on his personality. And, as always, thanks to Tsu-shishou for giving me ideas and not killing me for waiting so long to update!**

**Recap:**

"I, Haruno Sakura, am over Uchiha Sasuke."

"About time."

**IxS IxS IxS**

Sakura jumped, startled by the sudden voice coming from her doorway. The figure leaned against the wall, smirking, clearly proud of what she had accomplished. "Didn't mean to scare you," Ino said.

"Here to yell at me for being childish?" asked Sakura in a teasing manner.

"Just here to see if your forehead's gotten any bigger, in case we need a bigger room for it to fit in."

"But you're room's the biggest so that _you _can fit in it at all, dear Ino-pig."

Ino laughed and took a seat on the foot of her best friend's bed, "We're going to be leaving soon… they said it's not safe here now that _they_ found us. This isn't even their main hideout, apparently we were lucky that they were even here."

Sakura glanced at her bag lying in the center of the floor, random clothes spread out around it from her recent depression. She commented on even though it was a good idea to leave, she was not looking forward to cleaning up the mess, earning her a laugh from Ino. The two stayed in there for awhile, half-heartedly gossiping about the people they'd met so far, though neither were really paying attention to what the other was saying. Ino knew that Sakura wasn't exactly in the mood yet for such things, but at the same time she wasn't sure what else to do. Sakura kept it up in an attempt to humor Ino, who she was aware wasn't into the conversation either. Still… it was a bit of normalcy to make up for the recent chaos of their lives.

"You've kissed Itachi-san," Ino remarked, not knowing what else to say.

"On the cheek," answered Sakura without thinking about it. Ino wasn't paying attention, right?

"I thought he was just joking!" or maybe she was. Sakura flinched, realizing her mistake.

"I really should be re-packing so we can leave…." Ino stood and threw her clothes into the bag quickly and sat back down. This wasn't something she was going to allow to be dropped so easily. "I didn't think I'd ever see him again… and he was passed out, I'm sure he had no idea…."

Ino gasped, "You took advantage of him while he was unconscious?" a pause, "you had the chance and you _only _kissed him on the _cheek_?! Sakura! He's freaking gorgeous! What's wrong with you?!"

"Which part are you more concerned about," asked a bewildered Sakura. Ino didn't answer, just looked at the pinket suspiciously.

"You're a medic… you could've done this to any number of people… how could they ever trust you with wounded shinobi?"

"Weren't you just mad at me for not doing enough to Itachi?"

"You were off duty."

**IxS IxS IxS**

Sakura walked out of the room, laughing at some remark Ino has made. Hinata, Tenten, Sasori, and Deidara were sitting around the table, having a rapid conversation in low voices.

"Everyone's paired up and I have no one," Ino said in mock hurt voice. "I'm going to wither away alone in this place," she sighed and collapsed into a chair, earning a laugh from Sakura, a blush from Hinata, and a glare from Tenten.

However, the offended kounichi burst out laughing when Kisame and Itachi chose this moment to walk into the kitchen.

"Guess that means you get Kisame-san," Tenten said, grinning.

"What? No!" Ino protested. "Itachi-san walked in too, why can't I have him?"

Itachi looked slightly annoyed at having people claim him.

"He's Sakura-chan's," Hinata pointed out quietly, Tenten patting her back while laughing.

"I'm not an item," Itachi said coldly. "I don't belong to people."

"See!" Ino said. "I still have a shot then, Billboard Brow doesn't have him yet."

Sakura's temper flared. Her and Ino had had this conversation more than a few times. She had thought they'd got over this rivalry a long time ago, but a part of her could never forget it. They'd both lost Sasuke; that wasn't going to happen with his older brother.

Without actually thinking it through, Sakura walked up to Itachi, pulled his head down to her height, and kissed him full on the lips. Tenten and Hinata stopped laughing.

"I'd like to see you do that and live, Ino-pig," Sakura said when she pulled away from the Uchiha. Deidara snorted.

"I'd like to see what he'd do if you tried it again," Ino muttered.

"We're leaving," Itachi said, his voice as emotionless as ever. "Everyone be by the front door in five minutes."

Everybody cleared out of the room, not wanting to be in the same room as Itachi while he was possibly angry, it just wasn't safe. "Sakura," he called when she was about to leave as well. "Come here."

She approached slowly, trying to figure out some way to explain what she had just did. _Ino made me mad_ didn't sound as convincing as it did a minute ago.

"Yes Itachi-sama?" she tried.

"You're dehydrated. If you want to be in good condition for Akatsuki you're going to have to have better health. You're a medic, you should know this."

Sakura stared at him in shock for a moment, "D-dehydrated?"

He nodded, "Your lips are chapped."

"You're… not mad?"

"Get packed, you only have three minutes left."

It was going to be a long journey.

IxS IxS IxS 

"Is it always this quiet when you travel?" Tenten asked about a half-hour into their journey. While her three friends were used to traveling in silence, she wasn't. She'd always had Gai and Lee going on about youth and how they were going to succeed in an impossible amount of time. As annoying as it was, it's what she was used to, and traveling without it just seemed wrong.

"Yes," Sasori said simply.

Tenten sighed and watched Deidara's bird ahead, wishing she could ride on it too. Hinata had started to get a pain in her head a little after leaving, and Sakura said it was probably a side effect from the injury. Deidara, as courteous as ever, had offered to let her ride on one of his birds so she could rest. Ino and Sakura had giggled about it for a few minutes until Sasori began shooting them dirty looks, obviously annoyed at them for doing such un-shinobi like things.

"Hinata-chan," she called up finally. "Sing something, I can't take this."

"Hyuuga-chan can sing?" Deidara asked, leaning over the side of his bird; Tenten was sure he'd fall out of and break something. Tenten nodded, and yelled up her request to her friend once more.

Hinata shook her head, turning many different shades of red. The only times she ever sang in front of people were when she was at Sakura's house and it was only the four of them. "I cannot handle this silence anymore," Tenten said. "Now get over your stage fright and sing something."

Reluctantly, Hinata began singing quietly, stumbling over the words as she sang. "Sora w-wo mi agereba, hoshitachi ga hora mm—matataiteru, kono h-hoshi no hitotachi m-mitai ni, s-samazama na hikari wo hanatte."

"Come on Hinata-chan," Ino called up. "You can do better than that, we can barely hear you! And what's with the stuttering? You know his song by heart!"

Hinata took a deep breath and started again, "Sou sou dakara b-boku mo, hitoki mo k-kagayaitaida, me wo tojite kokoroni chikau," she paused, and her friends sang the last line with her, "Nagareboshi ni yume wo takushite!"

"Somebody is going to hear us and our cover is going to be blown," Sasori snapped.

"But that sounded pretty, yeah," Deidara argued. "Hyuuga-chan's voice is so small and fleeting… it really is art, yeah!"

"Singing is not art. You hear it once and—"

"Enough," Itachi said. "We're speeding up."

Two hours later they were attacked.

**IxS IxS IxS**

**There you go, ItaSaku kiss. And some slight DeiHina fluff. Be happy.**

**Hinata was singing Nagreboshi by Home Made Kazoku. Since it wasn't played at ChibiPenguinChan's wedding, it was sung here. **


	13. Chapter 13

**Since my last update, one of my friends has died, my brother has taken away the laptop that the story was saved on for a few months, I've been grounded, the same brother got engaged, and I have gone through a nasty break up. Needless to say, I haven't really felt like or had time to update. But to make up for my extremely long absence I've given you an extremely long chapter.**

**DxH DxH DxH DxH**

"Deidara-san! Get out of here," Tenten yelled.

"Why? I can fight them off too, yeah," he argued.

"We know _you_can," Sakura yelled. "But _someone _is still sick. Go ahead now!"

Deidara seemed to realize that his mission was to protect the former heiress, and quickly flew away as fast as his bird would go. Sakura caught sight of Hinata's nervous face as she poked her head over the bird, watching as a group of nin approached her friends.

"It'll be ok, Hyuuga-chan," Deidara said to her as she held onto his arms, her fear of the speed and height didn't seem to get rid of her shyness. "Nobody attacks the Akatsuki head-on and lives to tell about it, yeah." Hinata let out a small squeak. "But I'm sure Sakura-chan and the others wouldn't let them kill anybody who's a friend of yours, yeah," he added hastily. Hinata nodded, knowing full well that he couldn't see her, but not bothering to voice anything. She doubted he'd be able to hear her over the wind buzzing in their ears right now.

After awhile Deidara slowed down, and Hinata, on pure instinct, activated her bloodline. Deidara seemed to notice one way or another, and laughed. "I don't have enough chakra to keep going at this speed, yeah," he explained. Hinata nodded and deactivated her Byakugan.

"I d-don't feel so great," she muttered. The artist miraculously heard her, and grabbed her hands, putting them around his waist.

"Hold on like that and you won't wear yourself out so fast, yeah," he said over his shoulder. Hinata's face turned bright red.

**DxH DxH DxH DxH**

"So Tenten-chan," Ino whispered into her friend's ear. "There's five guys in front of us, and I'm pretty sure you've dated most of them… who do you think they're here for?"

"Is this _really_the time for that," Sasori hissed.

"We're up against a Hyuuga, the Kazekage's siblings, and those taijutsu masters," Itachi said from the front.

"Yeah Ino," Sakura muttered. "This isn't the time to make fun of Temari-san." She moved out of Sasori's sight, sure he'd turn on her after the could-be battle.

"Tenten!" Lee called, looking near tears. "Why would the youthful flower of our team abandon us like this?!" Ino muttered something that caused Sakura to stifle a laugh, but Tenten didn't hear what it was.

"Lee… I'm sorry…" she called to him.

"And the beautiful Sakura-san as well! Why would you do this to the village?" by now he really was in tears.

"We've already dealt with Konoha. The kounichi are not returning," said Itachi, as calm as ever. Sakura walked forward and leaned lightly against the Uchiha calling out her own apology to the Green Beast.

Neji's patience was wearing thin. "Tenten. You're to return to Konoha with us right now. If you agree to this, Hokage-sama will not declare you missing nin. This goes for you too," he added to Ino.

"But not Sakura-chan?" asked Tenten, glaring at her former teammate.

"Her forehead protector is scratched. She's declared herself missing nin."

"That's all it takes?" Ino cut in. She untied her own headband from around her waist and pulled out a kunai. She smacked it so that a long gash ran through the metal. "Much better than Sakura's… no huge hole in it," she muttered as she retied it. Tenten smirked at her blond friend.

"Tenten! You can still come back," Lee called.

"The team needs our beautiful flower of youth!" Gai added. Tenten was mildly surprised a sunset and hug didn't occur.

Tenten untied her own headband and looked at shining metal. She could still remember the day she received it… she had sure come a long way since then. Her father owned a weaponry shop, so she'd already decided when she joined the academy that she was going to prove that fancy chakra techniques weren't all there was to being a ninja. So of course she had to end up with a Hyuuga. But Lee had already decided that he would be the one to prove that you didn't need chakra, so she'd just silently cheered him on, until he did something Lee-ish, then she pretended she didn't know him. She tossed the headband to her sensei. "Keep it or scratch it and give it back…" she instructed. Gai, as embarrassing as he was, still taught her a lot. She didn't think wearing a damaged forehead protector would be the same, and he deserved something to remember his only female pupil by.

"Tenten, don't be ridiculous. Come back to Konoha."

"I wasn't talking to you, Hyuuga. If you cared this much you should've paid a bit more attention when I was still loyal."

"If you don't want to be in Konoha than move to Suna," a voice from the back said. "Becoming a missing nin isn't going to prove anything."

"They are becoming Akatsuki. Either get out of the way or battle. We don't have time for this."

Gai nodded, and everyone around him stepped forward to an opponent. Sakura glanced around, trying to figure out who she might need to help, and who would be there to help her if she needed it. As much as she'd hate to admit it, Neji was stronger than her, and she would eventually need someone. Itachi was already in a battle with Gai, who was waving a pair of numchuks around, staring pointedly at Itachi's feet. His favorite student was paired against his former student, and both seemed to be having a hard time fighting the other. Lee kept pleading with her to give up, and she was only half-heartedly throwing kunai at him. Kankaru was fighting Sasori with everything thing he had, while the Akatsuki member wasn't putting much effort into it. Temari seemed to have heard Ino's comment about her being male (or it might have been repeated), so the two were screeching at each other while they battled; Sakura would've rolled her eyes if she had the time.

But Neji was in front of her, Byaukgan active, and already in the Hyuuga fighting stance.

**SxT SxT SxT SxT**

"Why are you keeping them?" Kankaru shouted as he dodged Sasori's puppet.

"We're not," the older man said calmly, deflecting a kunai shot at him with ease, Kankaru threw another at him, along with a few curses. Sasori hadn't moved from his spot during the battle, instead just smacked the weapons away with his long tail; he was getting bored. He could not figure out _why _this Suna-nin would not attack him with his full strength… this wasn't his full strength was it? Instead of focusing on the battle, he kept asking him questions. The annoying blond's voice sounded in his head _"Then should I pull Tenten-chan's hair too? I'm sure poor Kankuro lost a bit of sleep because of her as well."_ Maybe all that mindless gossip wasn't completely worthless. "Tenten," he spoke, and his opponent froze. So he was right… this was the weapon girl's ex-boyfriend.

"What about her?"

Sasori smirked, "She came here on her own free will. We're not keeping her, she wants to stay." Kankuro glared at him as he attacked once more, this time using more effort. _So all he wanted was answers… or maybe to be pissed off, _Sasori mused.

**SxT SxT SxT SxT**

"You stole him from me you whore."

"I had nothing to do with it. It's not _my _fault that he didn't want you… not that I blame him."

Temari glared at the kounichi in front of her; she remembered her somewhat from the Chunnin exams many years ago, but not many details about her. She'd been eliminated so soon, and her battle hadn't stood out much in the older woman's head. She sighed, she really hadn't wanted to fight the girl, but she had to, it was part of her mission and she couldn't refuse. And since her opponent kept yelling insults and wasn't holding back, she saw no reason she shouldn't.

Temari got into her defensive stance with her right hand on her fan, ready to attack if need be. _Now, if I can remember this girl uses mind control tricks… I just have to be careful to not get stuck, _she thought, noting to keep an eye on her opponent's hands to avoid the seal. She watched as the blond haired girl also got into a fighting stance, her right hand inching towards a patch on her leg that Temari assumed contained kunai.

Let the catfight begin.

**IxS IxS IxS IxS**

Itachi glanced over to where Sakura was fighting the Hyuuga. She was doing well for the time being, and he suspected that she had experience with fighting the Byuakugan before. He turned back to his own challenger in time to avoid a blow from the taijutsu master's favorite weapon. Instead of hitting Itachi, the numchuck went past his head; finding his chance, Itachi grabbed it and pulled it out of Gai's hands. Then the green-clad warrior made his biggest mistake. He allowed himself to look up in surprise at the Uchiha, and he was caught inside the world of Tyakatsku.

Itachi glared at his enemy. He had managed to go on for awhile without ever once falling into any of his traps. He'd known from before that this man had trained with Hatake Kakashi, and knew how to avoid the effects of the Sharingan, but Itachi hadn't expected him to last this long.

He decided that was why he was holding the jutsu longer than was needed.

**IvT IvT IvT IvT**

Ino was panting heavily, already running out of energy from the battle, but still full on chakra. She wasn't stupid enough to use her mind transfer techniques in a situation like this. Temari threw another attack at her forcing her to jump up onto a tree to avoid it.

_Damn I can't dodge forever. I'm going to have to attack. But she knows what my attacks are… I knew I'd make a better spy, _she thought bitterly as she dodged yet another well-aimed attack from the older woman. She needed to figure out how to get closer to Temari, but so far she had no such luck. She wasn't a great strategic ninja so all she had were her instincts. She quickly hid behind a huge tree, thinking of a plan to somehow take down her enemy, and quickly…

**IvT**

_Come out, come out where ever you are…_ Temari thought impatiently. _Damn this girl is pissing me off._

She searched the forest for some clue, _something_ to give away her hiding spot, and then she saw it, the flowing tip of blond hair. _Found you bitch_. There was a gust of wind and the tree Ino was hiding behind was sliced into pieces. Temari jumped towards where she just attacked going in for the kill, but as soon as she made contact with Ino, she disappeared in a poof of smoke. _Shit! A henge!_

Temari didn't have enough time to react before she was suddenly attacked by thousands of kicks and punches, _Damn, this girl has some power behind her._

The Suna kounichi had enough of the abuse so she grabbed Ino's fist and flipped her over her own head and getting back into her defensive stance her right hand on her fan and her right foot slightly in front of her, ready for any attack that Ino had planned.

Temari charged forward and right before she could swing and hit Ino, she shifted to the right and Temari smirked, _Lights out kounichi._ And with that Temari quickly opened her fan to the third purple dot and swung with all her might towards Ino, successfully cutting the kounichi until she passed out onto the ground. Temari knew she won once she heard a thud on the ground.

She smirked as she turned to look around at her teammates. Kankaru was fighting with all his might to defeat another puppet user, Lee was half-heartedly throwing punches at Tenten, Sakura was dodging the Hyuuga's attacks well, but her right leg wasn't being used very well, and Gai was staring at Itachi, without moving… that couldn't be good…. During their mission in Konoha they had been told briefly about the effects of the Sharingan, and one of the best pieces of advice was never to look an Uchiha in the eye.

Didn't that guy say that he was going to fight the Sharingan Heir because he knew how to counter it? She sighed, she had told everyone before leaving that they should bring more people with them. If it hadn't been for one of them flying ahead then they would've been outnumbered and would have been in even more trouble. But no… Konoha couldn't afford to send out anymore shinobi, and her and Kankaru had only come along because, no matter what he admitted, he had wanted to 'rescue' Tenten.

She looked back at her still motionless captain, on the one hand the guy was leader of the mission, and she should probably help him… on the other, he was_really_ weird, and he had said he could stand up to the Sharingan. What to do…

**IxS IxS IxS IxS**

Itachi saw the attack coming, naturally. He dodged the Suna nin's attack effortlessly, however it cut off the jutsu that his first opponent had been under.

"Gai-san's unconscious!" the blond woman yelled. Itachi glared over at her, but she wasn't paying attention to him any longer. Her entire body was frozen and she was facing the opposite direction. He went over to attack her, until he noticed that there were also tears running down her cheeks. Out of curiosity he followed her gaze and saw that Sasori had ended up killing the man he was supposed to be fighting.

_Her brother is dead, _he realized. He weighed his options, go in and kill her now while she wasn't looking, or let her go say good-bye to her brother. He could just let her be, she was no longer a threat. But there was a chance that more people would come after them, in which case it would be a lot easier to make sure none of these people made it back to their countries to report what they had found out.

Someone screamed something out, but he couldn't understand them, and before he could figure out who, a green streak ran past him, the two conditions effectively making him forgot about killing the kounichi. The taijutsu master's pupil had rushed to his side to help— or protect—him. He didn't seem interested in the battle anymore, and he too was now a sitting duck. Itachi wondered briefly why the villages would send such incompetent people out on a mission to hunt down the Akatsuki.

However he didn't have long to ponder it, because there was a gasp of shock and then a coughing noise coming from the direction he had last seen Sakura. He looked over in time to see the older Hyuuga dropping his hand to his side after effectively hitting her heart with a chakra filled fist.

**IxS IxS IxS IxS**

"Sakura… Sakura wake up. _Sakura. Wake up._"

"Stop shaking her."

"Haruno Sakura you're the only medic here wake up now."

"Sure… just ignore the medic's friend. That'll solve everything."

"I don't see _you_doing anything to help."

"The Byukagan's effects are deadly, but she only got hit once. She'll live."

"Then why isn't she waking up?"

"Ita…chi…" the pink haired girl stirred. "If I didn't… know any better I'd say you were… worried about… me."

Tenten sighed in relief, earning a glare from the Uchiha. "I thought you said she'd be fine." The bun haired girl shrugged in reply, and turned back to her leg, which had a deep gash in it.

They were sitting in a clearing about three meters away from where their battle had taken place, and were now examining their wounds. Sasori seemed unhurt, though it was hard to tell with him, and Itachi had managed to avoid all but one kick from Gai, and other than that he was fine.

In addition to Tenten's cut, she had several bruises that she was ignoring, and her left arm was either broken or sprained. Lee had somehow managed to grab one of her own kunai to cut her, and for a split second she had felt sorry for anyone she had ever battled. That had hurt. She glanced over at her friend and suddenly her leg didn't feel painful at all…

Other than her comment a few minutes ago, Sakura hadn't made a sound since she was attacked. Ino was nowhere to be found.

"Why did you yell his name?" Sasori asked suddenly, his emotionless voice cutting through the silence.

He hadn't looked up, but since Itachi hadn't said a male's name since the start of the battle, Tenten assumed the question was for her, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Your sensei. You screamed out to him. If you were that worried about him, you shouldn't have left."

The weapons mistress let out a humorless laugh, "I saw him hit Sakura-chan's heart clear across the battlefield… Neji had no emotional connection to her, he would've hit her more and killed her. I'm not stupid. I know my former teammates. If they knew their sensei was in trouble, they would drop whatever they were doing and gone to help him. I did it to save Sakura-chan." _The Rookie 9… plus Gai's team. We were never one of them and Neji knew that. He had no reason to not kill her._ "The Hyuuga prodigy could do what the last Uchiha couldn't."

Itachi looked up at her, under different circumstances Tenten was sure she would've been dead by now. "I could kill that Hyuuga with my hands behind my back."

Tenten could've sworn she heard Sasori mutter something along the lines of, "Considering all you need is your eyes…"

Sakura stirred again and Itachi ignored the two with him for a moment. "Neji would've killed her. I don't think you can."

Itachi didn't look up at her, and Tenten suspected he was wondering if what she said was true. She didn't want to find out. If this man did decide that he didn't care for her friend at all, then she was probably next. She stood up, limping slightly on her bad leg.

"I'm going to look for Ino-chan, she couldn't have gone far… I don't think…"

"You're going with her," Itachi said.

"You're not in charge of me."

"Leader-sama will not be pleased when he hears that you let a possible subordinate die because you didn't want to make sure she didn't bleed to death."

Sasori didn't budge.

"I'm not out of chakra. You're not immune to my Sharingan."

Itachi carefully laid Sakura down onto the ground, and attempted to check her pulse. He'd never been good at healing people, but at least nobody was around to point that out. _Pulse shouldn't be this hard to find, _he thought immpatiently.

"Closer to the windpipe… you're really bad at this…"

"I've never done this before. You're the only medic here."

"Where's Ino?" Sakura asked, trying to sit up, but not able to.

"Sasori and… Tenten… are out looking for her."

"How long have they been gone?"

"They just left. Why?"

"Something Ino said once… but you don't seem like the revenge type."

**ZxI ZxI ZxI ZxI**

"_What do we have here?"_

"It's a girl… she seems to be lost."

"_I'm hungry."_

The girl he was looking at turned and he caught sight of her face. She didn't see him, but he guessed that she had heard him, for she looked in his direction a few times. Her clear blue eyes sweeping across the forest looking for any signs of life. "Is anyone there?" her voice was sharp and possibly frightened, but it never shook. "I'm a kounichi, I know you're there."

"You're going to be hungry for awhile," Zetsu whispered to himself.

**ZxI ZxI ZxI ZxI**

"We looked everywhere, but we didn't… find… her…" Tenten stared in shock at the scene in front of her. Sakura's arms were around Itachi's neck, while he was leaning over her, careful not to put pressure on her chest. Such precautions were probably to ensure her safety, but Tenten doubted limiting her oxygen was safe either. "You were just unconscious after being attacked with the Byuakugan, your heart is probably never going to completely heal, and you're making out with him?!"

Sakura looked up at her friend, her cheeks bright red. "He… kissed me first?"

**IxS IxS IxS IxS**

Deidara landed gently on the ground outside of the Akatsuki hideout, and jumped off of his clay bird. He offered a hand to the dark haired girl, which she gladly accepted, and he led her into the building.

"It's really d-dark in here," she commented quietly. Deidara looked over at her, noticing the way her pupil-less eyes widened as she took everything in, it was fascinating to watch. He'd never really seen a female scared before, much less a kunoichi, and it was a simple fear of the dark, something he'd always assumed that you had to like to be a ninja in the first place. Who'd ever heard of a shinobi that didn't like hiding in shadows? Maybe kunoichi didn't have to follow that rule.

"Are you going to be alright, yeah?"

The girl nodded, "This place reminds me of home… it's k-kind of eerie."

"Your house looks like the hideout, yeah? What kind of place did you live in?" she didn't answer, just looked around the wide empty space that seemed so different than where they had just came from. Their temporary home was a labyrinth of sorts, while this only had one hallway, but many rooms. It was also bigger, and there looked to be a living room towards their right. She could see a swinging door that she assumed led to the kitchen, and a dining room couldn't be far from there. "Is this the main base, or just another temporary hideout?"

"Temporary. One of the smaller ones, yeah. Until you're officially Akatsuki, you can't go to the main base," Deidara explained, walking down the long hallway as he spoke. "This will be your room, Hyuuga-chan. Since you're here first, you can have the biggest one, yeah."

"Thank you…" she said uncertainly. She was used to getting large rooms at the Hyuuga House, but she didn't ever expect that she would get the same courtesy at the Akatsuki.

"My room is right here," he called, entering a room across the hall from hers. "I always remember from the burn marks, yeah. Itachi never understood my art…" Hinata frowned to herself, _burning things is art?_ "But Sasori no danna is no better, he thinks those puppets of his are art. Nobody seems to understand that _true _art is fleeting… after all, art is a blast, yeah… What do you think Hyuuga-chan?"

Hinata jumped, thankful he didn't see her. She had forgotten that the blond man was talking to her. "I don't know… I never really thought much about art."

Deidara entered her room, wide grin on his face, "Well than I guess I'll have to teach you, yeah!"

**DxH**

"And _that _is why art is best when it doesn't last long. Because you only have a short amount of time to admire it before it's gone, yeah."

Hinata nodded slowly,_he's really into this stuff… he's practically glowing he's so excited._

"I never thought about it that way, D-Deidara-san, but it makes sense."

"No need to be so formal, Hyuuga-chan, yeah."

Hinata smiled, "It's Hinata, not Hyuuga."

Deidara grinned again, and pulled something out of his pouch, his back turned so the girl couldn't see what he was doing. After a few minutes he turned back to her, something cupped between his hands. "Since we're now some weird form of friends, I have made you a present, yeah!" Hinata let out a small laugh, and his grin grew wider. "Here you are, your one-of-a-kind artwork by the amazing Deidara-sama, yeah!" he opened his hands to reveal a white clay bird that was… moving?

"It's a-a-alive?"

"I put some chakra into it, so it'll be alive as long as I still have chakra left, yeah."

She smiled again, "Thank you Deidara-kun."

"You're welcome, Hinata-chan."

**DxH DxH DxH DxH**

Ino glanced around nervously. She could sense someone's presence rather than see or hear them. She willed herself to believe that it was just some animal and not an enemy… speaking of which… where did that bitch from Suna go? She didn't remember some of the battle, so she assumed she had been knocked unconscious at some point. Under different circumstances she would have been upset about losing, but now..._Where is everyone?_ She tried to remember the battle more clearly… they had been moving around a lot, but always within sight of the others… until that last attack… Ino had fled to a hiding spot… that was where her memory got really blurry.

The others couldn't be far. Even when she had run to get a hiding place there wasn't time to go far. _She hit me with that fan!_ Though it wasn't something to be proud of, it was helpful. Now it was just a matter of finding the trail of destruction that fan left… She hurriedly looked for any broken trees that would show her which way to find her lost friends.

"Though I guess I'm the lost one…" she muttered to herself. She shook her head to clear the thoughts, and walked towards a tree that was cut down in Temari's attack. The only problem was only four or five trees were cut down, so it was hard to be sure which direction she should go. She looked back at another tree and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw someone looking back at her.

She shook her head again "Trees don't have faces. Trees don't have faces. Trees don't have faces. Trees don't have faces," she looked up again to stare at the exact same tree to find it, much to her relief, faceless.

**ZxI ZxI ZxI**

**longest chapter ever… with both fluff **_**and **_**a battle scene… given I had a **_**lot **_**of help. Thanks to LilBitzer for both ideas and the Ino/Temari fight scene, and (surprisingly) ChibiPenguinChan for ideas and the Itachi/Gai battle scene (minus any ItaSaku interaction because she 'loathes any and all pairings featured in this story'. But I know that's not true ;)…). Its not plagiarism, I had permission from both authoresses to use their amazing abilities since I cant do it myself **

**and Ino was rescued by none other than everybodys favorite cannibal! Though this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's looked at my profile since chapter two…. ItaSaku kiss… and I know I cheated. But I**_**really **_**don't do well with fluff. **


	14. Chapter 14

"Kisame-san, you made it," Sakura said weakly as the shark man walked into the room.

"Sakura-chan…" Hinata said quietly. "You need more rest,"

"I was passed out for how long?" Sakura said, her defiance somewhat lessened by how weak her voice was. "Do I _really _need to be asleep again?"

"Yes, Sakura-chan," she said patiently. "You really should listen to the medics."

Sakura let out a dry laugh before she began coughing uncontrollably. "T-told you so."

"Just because you're a Byukugan expert you think you know more about healing than me?" she said in a joking manner. "Where's Ino and Tenten?"

"They're still not b-back yet…" Hinata's voice, which had a natural stutter anyway, was now also shaking with worry. While Sakura was sure that Hinata had faith in their friends to make it back safely, having not seen Ino yet made them both suspect the worst. She was about to say something to comfort her, but somebody else got there first.

"Sasori no danna is with them, yeah. He won't let anything happen to them."

Sakura watched in silent fascination as Hinata slowly lifted her chin and looked up at Deidara. Her eyes, which a moment ago were swimming with tears, held a mixture of relief, gratitude, uncertainty, and even a small amount of affection. She looked over at Deidara to find that his eyes holding the dark haired girl's gaze with reassurance, curiosity, and a faint look of longing.

She looked back and forth between the two, watching the way the tears seemed to evaporate out of her friend's pale eyes and how he seemed to watch her so intently that his bright blue eyes were almost glowing. Then came the hard part… on the one hand she could keep quiet and let them be lost in their own little world where they both seemed to be so at peace, but if she did there was a chance they weren't coming back from that world.

"Sakura-san, if you make a sound I think your room might explode while you're sleeping tonight."

"That must make you very brave, Fishy-chan. You're not afraid of your chakra getting blocked?"

"I'm more afraid of seeing Deidara start making out with someone besides his hands. Hyuuga-san looks a bit too innocent for that." Said Hyuuga-san was now staring at the floor, face neon red.

"Be nice to Hinata-chan, yeah!"

"Hinata… chan?" Sakura said, pink eyebrows raised. "Since when are you two so familiar?"

"They were both in her room for the longest time when they first got here," Kisame explained. "I heard voices down the hallway but I couldn't find them. Turns out they were on her bed and so distracted they didn't notice me open the door."

Sakura grinned and was going to say something when a sharp pain shot through her chest making her wince, Hinata noticed this and switched into medic mode. She shooed everyone out of the room (even though Itachi gave her such a glare it sent chills down her spine) and started to work on her friend's injuries once again.

**SxT SxT SxT SxT**

"I've found a girl."

"Sasori… what is that?" the puppet master twitched in annoyance; even Deidara called him danna, why couldn't she show some respect?

Zetsu continued on as if he hadn't heard the bun haired girl, "She's blond, has blue eyes, and she was wandering around the forest a few meters from here."

"That's Ino-chan! That's great… um… what's your name?"

The plant man didn't answer; instead faded into the tree he was standing in front of and went off to do whatever it is that a half plant does in his spare time.

"Wait! What direction was she?" Tenten yelled at the tree, though the man didn't reappear. "Now what are we going to do Sasori? Sasori? Where'd you go?" she grumbled something under her breath and took off in a random direction, alternating between yelling for her lost friend and the man who had just abandoned her in the middle of a forest.

After a few minutes of walking she decided that Ino wouldn't have been this far in that particular direction, so she started making (what she hoped) was a large circle around where there plant man had spoken to her.

"Ino-chan! Ino-chan where are you?" she yelled before muttering, "Because years of training to become a ninja goes out the drain when you're lost and don't care who finds you anymore."

"Who's there?" another voice suddenly called somewhere to Tenten's right. "I know you're there I can hear you yelling!"

"Ino-chan? Is that you?"

"Tenten-chan?" Ino walked into view, limping slightly on her left leg, but looking extremely relieved to see her friend. Tenten let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding before half-running over and hugging her. She then grabbed Ino's arm and pulled it over her shoulder, taking weight off of her injured leg, and led her to a tree that had fallen over so she could sit.

"Sit here, I'll climb up that tree and see if I can tell where we are," Tenten said, already walking over to the tallest tree she could find.

"It won't help any… we don't know this forest," Ino pointed out while moving her leg into a more comfortable position. "And you might step on someone's face," she muttered to herself.

"But I might be able to see which way Sasori went," Tenten argued back. "It's better than just sitting here." She quickly got to the top of the tree and for awhile she said nothing. Ino began to apply chakara to her injured limb, which seemed to make the pain melt away. "I think I see him!" Tenten shouted suddenly. "You stay here, I'll go get him."

"It's fine," Ino called back. "I fixed my leg, I can go with you." she stood up easily and jumped into the tree her friend was still standing in and together they made their way over to the Puppet Master.

**DxH DxH DxH DxH**

"I m-miss Masahiro…"

Sakura opened her eyes in surprise. The amount of healing that had to be done had taken its toll on her, and she had been sleeping deeply but the quiet confession had woke her up instantly. She was going to say something to comfort the girl, but a different voice got there first.

"He's with Naruto-san, I'm sure he's fine."

"He's not our Kage anymore, no need to be formal… I don't think he was ever comfortable with us being so formal with him anyway…" was that Ino's voice?

"He l-liked having everyone else in the village c-calling him Hokage-sama, but it always b-bugged him when his friends did it."

"Ino… Tenten…" Sakura managed to say.

"Sakura, you're awake!" Ino sounded relieved and a rustle of clothing made Sakura think that she had moved closer to the bed she was laying in.

"How long was I out?"

"Six days."

Sakura shot into a sitting position, ignored the dizziness, and looked at her best friend, "What?!"

"You were only asleep for a few hours, Sakura-chan," Tenten said laughing. "Ino-chan's just trying to make you even sicker."

She fell back gently onto to the bed, cursing her friend out in the process, and stared up at the ceiling. "We made it… We're with the Akatsuki."

**x x x x**

**And again with my eye obsession… though at least in Hostage it had a point to it, now its just me being weird. Sorry for the late update, I took two weeks off for spring break so I didn't get a chance to write anything. **


	15. Chapter 15

She awoke abruptly, sitting up bolt right, covered in cold sweat

She awoke abruptly, sitting up bolt right, covered in cold sweat. She quickly wiped the tears that were welling up in her eyes, and tried to remember why she felt so afraid and desperately sad. Taking a few deep breaths she calmed herself down enough to gather her thoughts.

She'd been dreaming… but about what? She remembered seeing dark eyes glaring down at her, and then kunai coming from every direction. She shook her head and forced herself to get out of bed, ignored the protests of her tired body, and made her way to the sliver of light coming from the closed door.

"You shouldn't be up and walking around just yet."

Sakura almost jumped, caught herself, and scowled into the darkness in the direction she assumed the voice had come from. "You're not a medic," she said, her voice hushed but as forceful as she could make it. "How would you know when I should and shouldn't be up?"

"You struggled getting up. If getting out of a bed is hard on you, then you're not fully recovered yet. The Hyuuga who healed you isn't particularly talented and most likely didn't heal you as thoroughly as you need."

Sakura was about to say something to defend her friend, but then she realized something, "How would you know how thorough she was unless you were watching?" she paused for a moment, rethinking everything that had happened since she arrived at the current base. "Itachi… were you with me the whole time?"

His red eyes seemed to glow even in the extreme darkness, and yet his voice was softer than she had ever heard it, "Get back in bed, Sakura. Don't injure yourself anymore than you already are."

"I'm thirsty," she said, more for the sake of defiance than actual need. She couldn't even remember why she had gotten out of bed in the first place.

He stood up and walked towards her, standing close enough that she could see his face clearly even with the lack of light. He stood there for a moment, looking at her while she memorized everything about his face as if there was going to be a test on it later. After what seemed like forever and only a second at the same time he whispered, "Lay back down and I'll get you something to drink." She nodded, her mouth suddenly very dry and her knees weak. He walked out of the room to hold up his end of the deal and was halfway down the hallway before she found the strength to move again.

Slowly she made her way back to her bed, stopping to turn on a small lamp beside her bed before climbing under the blankets and rearranging her pillows simply to keep herself occupied before Itachi returned. She mentally cursed herself out for such stupidity; she was a strong and capable kunoichi and should _not_ be reduced to nervously moving pillows around like a little fangirl. Not again.

All too soon, and yet not soon enough, Itachi came back into the room, glass of water in hand. He handed it to her, pulling up a chair to sit beside her bed as she drank.

"You were having a nightmare," he said, his voice impassive. She nodded, frowning as she did so trying to remember what the dream had been about. "You were yelling for the Kyuubi vessel." Her eyes widened slightly and she looked both confused and guilty. "You told him to stop. Apparently he was doing something you didn't approve of."

"He was fighting someone," she said slowly, the memories slowly coming back to her. "And I didn't want him to hurt… whoever it was…" her frown deepened as she tried harder to remember who her former friend had been battling. While still trying to figure it out, Itachi took the now empty glass out of her hand and set it down on the bedside table before gently pushing her back down.

"Go back to sleep, Sakura."

She stared up at him for a moment, as if trying to choose her next move carefully, "No". Itachi looked down at her, face unreadable, while she fidgeted nervously with the corner of her blanket. Her voice lacked it's usually defiance, and she sounded more fearful than anything else. Moments later she seemed to find that his silence meant she should elaborate, so she began talking, and he was reminded of the first time he met her when she would pour her heart out for no apparent reason. "I… I don't know who Naruto was fighting, and I don't think I want to. But I've been having these dreams for the past few weeks… at least I think that's what they've been about… I can never remember them, I just wake up feeling terrified and useless. Like I should have been helping someone or doing something important, but I couldn't do it and then I can't even remember what it was." she paused her story, looking down at the blanket she was still playing with. "I'm scared to fall asleep," she finally admitted, voice small and slightly disgusted by the words.

"Regardless of your dreams, you need sleep," Itachi said, voice steady and calm as usual. When she glared up at him and opened her mouth to protest, he cut her off, "You need rest to heal properly. Any capable medic could tell you that, so you should know that very well."

She allowed herself a small smile at his words, twisting them around in her head to make it sound more complimentary than it really was. Still, she had a point to make; "I'm not going back to sleep. It's not like I'll rest well anyway."

Itachi closed his eyes briefly, before grabbing the blanket out of her hand and throwing it over her. The closest thing to tucking someone in as he would ever get. "Sleep."

"No. I'm sick of having nightmares. My mind if filled with way too much negativity for me to be able to get any rest unless I pass out and can't dream anyway. So there's no point in me—" she was cut off quite effectively when her lips were suddenly covered with the Uchiha's.

"There. Happy thoughts. Now sleep."

He assumed that if she wasn't as dumbfounded as she looked she might have glared at him.

Eventually her green eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep. Ten minutes after her breathing had regulated and she had rolled into a more comfortable sleeping position Itachi finally left his spot at her side and walked out of the makeshift hospital room. He couldn't help but let the corner of his lips turns up, almost as if it was a smile, but it was gone as soon as it had come. It was amazing how foolish she could be while dreaming; as if a blond nuisance could ever harm Uchiha Itachi.

**IxS IxS IxS IxS**

Ino was woken when a kunai was thrown unceremoniously inches above her head, making a dull thud as it hit the wall. Shinobi instincts kicked in and she immediately sat bolt up preparing to defend herself against the attacker when she heard laughter coming from the direction the weapon had come from.

"Relax, Ino-chan. It's just me," Tenten said, laughing as she leaned against the door.

Ino sat up, grumbling about genjutsu and shaving people's heads. Tenten wasn't sure if that mean 'This could be a genjutsu, and if it's not I'm cutting off your hair' or 'I was having a dream about using genjutsu to give people hair cuts', either way, she made a mental note to sleep with one eye open. "What time is it?"

"I don't have the slightest idea," the brown haired girl said lazily. "But Hinata-chan is making breakfast, Sakura-chan is awake, Sasori is back, there's some weird guy in an orange mask running around, and I think it's best you wake up now."

Ino stifled a yawn and began changing her clothes, "You look like Shikamaru."

Tenten smiled, she had gotten used to comments like that from her blond friend. She wasn't nearly as lazy as the genius from their former village was, but she did have some of the same tendencies when there was nothing of real importance to be done.

She was about to respond to the accusation, but something in the other room exploded and needless to say she became distracted. "What was that?" she asked to no one in particular as she opened the door and stuck her head out into the hallway, looking around for the source of the loud noise. Ino came up beside her, now fully dressed and pulling her hair into it's usual high ponytail, and shrugged in response, exiting the room entirely to go investigate. Tenten followed closely behind, and took to twirling a kunai around her finger so it would be ready if they needed to defend themselves against something. A few moments later they heard people yelling at each other, and quickened their pace eager to find out what had happened.

"—Blowing up the whole base!"

"It's his fault, yeah! If he hadn't been doing—"

"Don't blame this on Tobi! Tobi is a good boy!"

"Why were you messing with my clay, yeah?!"

"It was m-my fault, Deidara-kun… I asked him to move it so I could use the c-counter space…"

Hearing their friend's scared sounding voice, the two girls rushed into the room ready to help defend the former heiress, however it seemed their services weren't needed this time.

"Why didn't you say so, yeah?" the Iwa nin's tone changed dramatically. While a second ago he was clearly angry and defensive, he now seemed cheerful and amused at the whole situation. "I'm sorry if the explosion scared you, Hinata-chan. At least it was a small amount…" he added sheepishly.

"It's f-fine…" she muttered, staring pointedly at her feet to hide her now red face.

"As touching as this is," Sasori said, his annoyance still present. "Your "art" almost destroyed our kitchen. Deidara was about to shoot back a retort, when Tenten subtly took a step between them saying that she and Ino would be more than happy to help clean up any mess that was made. The result was the three of them moving a piece of the wall that had fallen into the middle of the walkway, though she felt relieved that they had avoided a fight. She could tell that everyone was on edge since the four kunoichi arrived, and she couldn't blame them. While she didn't know their customs, she assumed that letting some complete strangers into the base of a top secret organization probably wasn't the best of ideas.

Hinata had the food on the table by the time they were done, and she joined the trio to eat at a small table located just outside the kitchen. The masked man (Tobi, was it?) had grabbed a plate of food for himself, before rushing off to his room, claiming that he was late for something and had to eat on the run. Itachi and Kisame had left on a mission of some sort earlier that morning, so they wouldn't be back for a few days, and Sasori never seemed to eat.

When their breakfast was done, Hinata began filling up another plate for Sakura to eat, and was about to go deliver it to her, when Deidara suddenly appeared beside her, and took the plate away.

"A lady such as yourself shouldn't have to carry such a heavy load, yeah," he said, grinning at his joke. Hinata decided to play alone and curtseyed to him, thanking him for his kindness. He then escorted her to where her injured friend was staying.

"Since when did they become so familiar?" Ino asked, a thin eyebrow raised.

"They were on a first name basis, but I didn't think they were so…" Tenten trailed off, seemingly unable to find the proper word to describe just what the two were.

**DxH DxH DxH DxH**

"Itachi tucked me in last night," Sakura said, a small blush appearing on her cheeks. Her friends all leaned in closer, expecting her to give them more details.

They were sitting in her room, crowded around her bed and gossiping about that day. While it had started off with them pooling together all knowledge of the Akatsuki so far, to try to determine their chances of getting in (or at least surviving) it had somehow turned into them ranking the members in order of attractiveness.

So far Itachi was in first place.

**IxS DxH SxT ZxI**

**I'm thinking of ending all of my chapters like that… the four of them talking about their days. That way I don't have to write out entire scenes that can be summarized in a few sentences… and it's easier to have people talk about fluff than writing it out, and I'm lazy xD. And sorry that this chapter was so uneventful… it's pretty much filler, I just needed to update and I'm not sure what should happen just yet.**

**Next chapter: Stuff happens. Really, I have no idea. Reviews with suggestions would be wonderful. **


	16. Chapter 16

It had been a week since everyone had arrived at the base, the four kunoichi included, and Sasori was _not_ pleased.

His partner seemed more than thrilled at the new arrivals and whenever he was done with training for the day he would talk with the girls. That in itself wasn't too big of a deal, except that on the few times Sasori had cared enough to listen to their mindless chatter, he heard the explosives expert mention things about the other members. And while the information wasn't anything of extreme importance ("Stay away from Hidan, yeah, especially if he wants to convert you."), he was still giving away Akatsuki secrets to people who _weren't members._ It was stupid, careless, and dangerous to do so. They still had no proof that these females weren't spies, and he was positive that Deidara had let other bits of information slip as well.

Another thing that caught his attention was that at least twice a week all of the girls would meet in a room and talk for hours on end when everybody else was asleep, always in hushed voices. If that wasn't call for suspicion than what was? They were never apart from each other for more than a day, and had all the time in the world to talk (especially since they never did any training), and yet they would wait for everyone to be asleep and then hold secret meetings. The first time he noticed this he even heard one of them whispering something about spy techniques. Clearly they were up to something.

But no matter how many odd things that he caught them doing, nobody else would bother listening, even if he did tell them. Deidara was too attached to them and wouldn't listen to anything negative no matter how reasonable. Kisame had mentioned that he trusted the pink haired one and also suspected that Itachi was fond of her, so they were out of the question. Tobi was… well he was Tobi and his opinion mattered little to the puppet user. The only person he thought would share his suspicions was the Akatsuki's own spy, but he was nowhere to be found. He knew that Zetsu was somewhere in the nearby area, but finding him when he didn't want to be found was next to impossible.

"You have a serious look on your face, Sasori," said a voice coming from behind him.

He mentally sighed; he wasn't in the mood to deal with any of their new houseguests, especially that one. "Show some respect," he snapped irritably, turning around so he was facing her. "I do not recall giving you any sort of indication that I should be addressed so informally."

Tenten studied him for a long moment, and when he was about ready to get into a defensive stance from the intensity of her gaze, she nodded and said the most horrifying thing he had ever heard. "I don't care what Sakura-chan says, you're much better looking than Uchiha." And with that she turned and walked away, leaving him, for the first time in memory, completely shocked and slightly disturbed.

He allowed himself a few moments to try to figure out what kind of mind games she must be playing before calmly walking to the exit of the building, hell bent on finding Zetsu. These kunoichi were not to be trusted, and he was determined to find someone who would see it that way while they still had the chance. Leader wouldn't allow them to join, of course, but they had let four non-members stay in two of their hideouts! Given they _were_ only used for when they members were away on a mission and needed a place to re supply and were too far from their actual lair. But they point still remained; they had been given information that shouldn't have been revealed, and had led Konoha nin to one of their bases. Naturally they would be killed as soon as Leader managed to get his hands on them, but what would happen to him? Deidara was the one that let them stay, but Sasori hadn't done anything to stop them. He was against them being there, but that didn't mean anything; they were still gathering information on the organization and he was allowing them to do so and that would not go unnoticed. Leader would not be pleased that four girls were allowed to run around their base and get all the information their little hearts desired without a single member doing anything to stop them! Not only that, but now they were trying to include him in their web of lies. 'Well… maybe not _lies_,' he thought as he walked around the forest, searching for any sign of the plant-man. 'I am better looking than Itachi.'

He stopped in his tracks and mentally slapped himself. They were getting into his head.

**SxT SxT SxT SxT**

Ino lay on her bed, staring at a small (and dead) plant sitting in the corner. She was trying to decide if nobody had been there to water it, or if someone had, but didn't care enough to do so. Maybe it had been forgotten, and had to slowly wither away completely unnoticed.

She knew wondering about how the plant died was a stupid thing to do, and yet she couldn't help but stare at it. It reminded her of home… of the flower shop that she would sometimes work in while her parents were busy. She would sit there for hours tending to all the flowers, and helping lost looking men who either had a crush or a very upset girlfriend. Sakura could come in and visit her when she wasn't working at the hospital, and her teammates would also stop by to see her and occasionally play a game of shogi.

She missed them as well… Asuma-sensei had always been very nice to her, and was a great teacher. Chouji and Shikamaru… they had been the closest of all the teams to start out with. She reached up and touched the earring she wore, before scolding herself for thinking of them. She was a missing nin now, and they were enemy shinobi. Again her gaze shifted to the plant, and she felt she might cry from homesickness, but stopped herself when the door opened and her best friend walked in the room.

"Is something wrong, Ino?" the blond shook her head and Sakura sighed, and sat on the bed next to her. "The first time I was here I was miserable…" she said finally, as if one side had finally won her internal battle of releasing this information. "I wasn't allowed to leave my room, and the only company I got was Itachi. He must have used his Sharingan on me or something, because I don't remember huge chunks of being here…" Ino looked at her friend curiously. She had never spoken of her time as a hostage, and had never mentioned holes in her memory. "But the part I do remember is sitting on my bed all day with absolutely nothing to do, and only seeing someone when meals were brought to me. That was the worst part, I think."

Ino let out a snort of laughter, "If two months ago you had told me that I would have dragged you to the hospital for a psyche check…"

The pinkette smiled, "Yeah… you'd think being kidnapped by Uchiha Itachi, member of the infamous Akatsuki would be a traumatic experience that would give you all sorts of nightmares, but it really wasn't that bad as long as someone was with me… It may not seem like it, but we had some pretty interesting conversations… I think.

"But I missed you guys… I had to stay in that room all the time and I couldn't really do anything but sit and think about how much I missed everyone. And then I would get mad, really mad, because I couldn't get out of there and I didn't think anyone was coming for me. So when someone did come to check on me, usually Itachi, I would go off on him for no real reason. Well… besides the whole kidnapping thing, but I wasn't even mad at that, just being here without my best friends."

"Then why'd you come back?"

Sakura was silent for a moment, planning her words carefully. "I got you guys back and I was so excited… I was finally free and my friends were with me again. It was the greatest feeling in the world, but… it didn't last long," she turned to grin bitterly at her former rival, "I fell in love with Itachi."

Ino's eyes widened slightly, and she looked like she was about ready to say something, but changed her mind. Instead she just nodded, signaling her friend to continue her story.

"Even though I was home again, and I had my old life back, I always felt a bit empty, and in the back of my mind I was sad. But… it wasn't the same as when Sasuke left. With him I felt betrayed and rejected, but at the same time I had a desire to get him back. But with Itachi… it was like I had walked away from one of the greatest things that had happened to me, and I couldn't ever get it back."

"But you did," interrupted Ino. "You're here now, and he's just a few rooms away. And you have us, so you've got the thing you wanted from before. So you can be happy now."

Sakura shook her head, "What's the point of being here with my best friend, if it makes her feel miserable? If I knew that you would be upset with this, I never would have asked you to come. I think I'd prefer missing you, then knowing that you're unhappy because of something I did."

Ino brought her knees up to her chest, hugging her legs against herself for a moment before responding, "I miss Konoha… I miss my parents, Shikamaru, Chouji, Asuma-sensei… and even the flower shop. I know the village treated me like crap, but it was still our home."

The two lapsed into silence, each deep in thought. They sat there quietly until Hinata came in to tell them that dinner was done. Without saying a word they stood and walked towards the dining room, having memorized the way already.

The dinner was uneventful, though oddly comforting. Deidara was whining at Hinata about how Sasori had taken off without a word, and in return she would nod politely and try not to giggle at his childness. Tenten was having a discussion about weapons with Tobi (who didn't seem to be hungry, for he didn't eat anything, or even take off his mask), Kisame occasionally commenting on what she had said. Itachi was usually silent, but he couldn't help but notice that both Sakura and her blond friend were uncharacteristically quiet.

**IxS**

After everyone had finished eating, and the mess was cleared up, almost everyone went to their bedroom, but the last Uchiha followed the pink haired kunoichi, intent on finding out why she wasn't herself.

He knew she was heading to her room, so took his time allowing her a chance to relax before he interrogated her. He paused at the door, silently debating knocking, but instead silently cracked the door open, and once he was certain she was decent, let it swing open slowly.

She was lying on her bed, a book in her hand, silently reading. Upon closer inspection he noticed that she had just read the exact same line four times. "Something bothering you?" he asked, almost smirking as she jumped slightly, not having noticed him.

She quickly recovered and shook her head, but sat up so he could sit beside her.

"Ino's homesick," she said after awhile. He stared at her, and she assumed that meant she was to continue, "She really did have a great life back in Konoha; they wouldn't let her join ANBU, or even take the test for it, and insisted that she work as a medic nin even though she hated it. But aside from that, her team was really close, she got along really well with her parents, and she loved working at their flower shop… I feel bad for making her give that up."

"Flower shop?"

"Her parents' store. She would help them out when her dad was on a mission." Itachi nodded before slowly standing up, motioning her to follow. She did so, but when she asked where they were going she was ignored. They soon found themselves in front of Ino's door, and after a knock and a "I'm busy, come back later," they were inside her room. Itachi ignored her glare, and Sakura shrugged helplessly.

"Follow me," Itachi commanded, before turning and walking out of his room. Angry as she was with him, Ino was smart enough to know that you don't disobey an Uchiha. And so they walked. Eventually he lead them outside, and into a fenced in area a short ways away from the base. A few hand seals later, and they were walking through a training ground of sorts. At first glance it seemed like a regular clearing, save for the additions. In one section there was a small lake where water jutus could be practiced and perfected; in another a large make shift mountain of stones, presumably for earth jutsu, and so on. Itachi led them to the far corner, ignoring their wide eyes, where a well sized room was located. He knocked on the door politely, but when nobody answered he opened it anyway and walked inside. He allowed himself a small smirk at the two gasps of shock coming from behind him.

**IxS IxS IxS IxS**

"You should have seen it!" Ino said, her clear blue eyes shone with happiness as she recounted the story to the two girls who weren't with them. "It was this _huge_ greenhouse… thing. There were all kinds of plants, and even some beautiful looking flowers. I recognized some of the different species, but there were still _tons _that I had never seen before in my life! And he said that I could go back there if I ever wanted to."

Tenten grinned at the blonde's excitement, but Hinata simply looked awed. "And Itachi-san b-brought you there? Just l-like that?"

Sakura, who had been silently leaning against the side of the bed until now, explained further. "He came into my room and asked me what was wrong, strange, I know," she added at the looks of shock her friends gave her. "And I told him that Ino was homesick, and then he told us to follow him, and… yeah," she finished, lamely.

"Who knew Uchiha could be a good guy," Tenten said laughing.

"Don't even joke," Ino said, though she grinned as well. "If Sakura starts to think he's a good guy, then she'll no longer obsess him. After all, most of his appeal comes from his bad ass persona."

Hinata giggled, "There's more to people than what they let us see."

"I wish I could see more of what he's hiding…" Sakura said absently, before blinking a few times. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

The blush, smirk, and laugh were answer enough.

**IxS DxH SxT ZxI**

**Yes, that last section was meant to point out how much I dislike the latest chapter xD and sorry for the late updates, school has been a nightmare… and sorry for any mistakes, my beta is mad at me… again…**

**Saku-baka**


	17. Chapter 17

_"She's back here again. What a rude little girl, breaking into the greenhouse like this."_

"But she does take care of the plants while we're on missions. She seems to know a lot about them."

_"If you approve of her so much, why don't we go talk to her? It's better than waiting here while you all but stalk her."_ His black side was getting irritable.

"It's not _stalking_ if she's on _our _property."

"Is… is somebody there?"

"Now you've done it, she's heard us."

"Itachi-san? Sakura? Are you two making out in here again?"

_"Itachi has a girlfriend? I thought he and Kisame were an item…"_

White Zetsu shook his head and was about to melt back into the tree, but his other half stopped him. Just as he was about overpower himself, the girl who had broken into his sanctuary turned the corner and saw him.

Her bright blue eyes were wide with surprise as she stopped in her tracks to stare at him. If he had been anyone else he might have felt a bit self-conscious under the stare she was giving him as she took in everything about his appearance. He didn't miss the three or four times she looked at his appendages growing out of his head, though he wished she would pick something else to focus on. Wasn't his multi colored face enough to distract someone?

_"Who are you and why are you in my greenhouse?"_

"S-sorry! I didn't know it was yours," she said, looking shocked and apologetic at his harsh voice. "Itachi-san showed it to me and said I could come in here if I wanted to, I thought it was just a--"

"Itachi-san let you in here?"

If she wasn't questioning her sanity before, there was no doubt she was now going through her family history in her head trying to remember any cases of delusional grandfathers or something of the like.

"Did… did your voice just change?"

He mentally sighed. He had been hoping for a slightly more original question. Did everyone have to word it the exact same way? "It does that," he said automatically.

"So you have two minds, but they can both… I mean, you can talk with different sides of your personality?"

He was surprised, though he didn't show it, nobody else had reached that conclusion before, and it was very interesting. Maybe he wouldn't eat her. Instead he nodded.

She looked around the room nervously before she spoke again, her clear voice laced with fear she was trying hard not to show, "I really didn't know this was your greenhouse, I'm very sorry for intruding." She lifted her foot as if she was going to take a step forward, but seemed to decide against it and looked around the building again.

_"The pretty little girl is scared and we're blocking the only exit,"_ his black half said with a snicker. He was enjoying himself at least.

She shook her head causing her long blond hair to shake and the tip of it resembled a snake slithering back and forth, "It's just rude to go somewhere without permission," she looked thoughtful for a moment, and then added "from the owner."

Zetsu looked at her in curiosity for a few moments, wondering not only what she was thinking, but how her thought process worked. Normally the first question he had to answer was about his appendages or about why he 'was talking like that' before the person ran off screaming. But she wanted to know how it worked? That was odd.

"Why are you here?" the look on her face showed that she had misunderstood so he continued before she had the chance to apologize again. "I didn't know we were getting new members," he clarified.

"Oh…" the girl said, ducking her head to keep herself from staring, "We abounded our village and we ended up running into Deidara, and he led us here."

_"There's more of you running around here and breaking into people's property?"_

"Three others," she said, though she used the same tone as when she answered before. She wasn't afraid of his other half. "We're all from Konoha. Sakura's been here before, and she thought that Itachi-san would let us stay…"

_"Since when did he care about anyone else? This story doesn't add up. I think she's an intruder."_

"If you don't believe me ask him. Just don't ask Deidara or Sasori, they don't like me much and would deny it just to see what happens…"

"I wouldn't put it past them. What's your name?"

"Yamanaka Ino," she said, her voice uncertain. She was smart enough to know that if she angered him too much she would lose the fight, he _was_ S-Class, but her shinobi training had taught her to never reveal information. Zetsu could see the internal struggle going on behind her eyes.

"Good luck then." And with that, he disappeared.

Ino stood there blinking for a few minutes, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Finally she came to her senses enough to realize that she was still in his greenhouse and should probably leave before he got angry again. And she knew exactly where she needed to go.

**ZxI ZxI ZxI ZxI**

She was in Konoha again, wearing a red formal looking kimono and standing on the balcony of the Hokage tower to the left of her shishou. A large grin was on her face, but it was nothing compared to the boy standing next to her. The hat looked good on him. Tsuande had just silenced the cheers that had erupted when she named Naruto Hokage, and was now naming her student Head of the Konoha Hospital.

She felt ecstatic, this is what she had dreamed and worked so hard for. Her best friend was Hokage and she was now Chief of Staff. On top of that, Sasuke stood leaning against a wall so that he was hidden from the public eye (which he had always preferred) yet still very much in the moment. When the Godaime finished her speech the three teammates just smiled at each other, still too excited to speak.

But something wasn't right.

Everything was as it should be… but something was missing. But it couldn't be, the picture was complete, in fact she could see Ino running over to her right now with a congratulatory grin on her face. Kakashi was also nearby, smiling at Naruto behind his mask while the two of them were discussing something she wasn't listening to. Her sensei, her three best friends, the title she had always wanted… what was missing?

Sakura sat up quickly, her eyes snapping open as someone started violently shaking her. "Wake up," the voice insisted angrily. "Your little boyfriend just landed me in a load of trouble!"

"I don't have a boyfriend… I'm too busy running the hospital…"

The voice, and the body it came from, was still for a moment before it became louder, "What?!"

She blinked a few times, before shaking her head in an attempt to clear it before turning to her best friend, "Sorry, I was having a weird dream. What's the problem?"

"The problem," Ino began, her face flushed. "Is that—"

Ino's soon to be rant was interrupted by Hinata's rather abrupt entrance into the room before she quickly, and yet oddly quietly, shut the door and all but flew under Sakura's bed. The girl still sitting on the bed was pinching herself, under the impression she was still dreaming, while the blond beside the bed was looking between the door and the last place she'd seen her friend in confusing. A moment later there was a knock on the door before it was thrown open, without invitation, to reveal Deidara… with his hair down… and his cloak missing.

"Am I not supposed to be taking a nap?" Sakura asked in disbelief. "Or did the cousins decide that today was a good day to harass me?"

"Sorry Sakura-san, yeah," Deidara said, though his eyes were sweeping the room. "I need to find Hinata-chan… she stole my hair tie."

"Why would she do that?" Ino asked, a thin eyebrow raised. "And why would she be in here?"

"I don't know! One minute she was offering to wash my cloak and the next thing I knew my hair's in my face and she's running down the hall!"

"That doesn't sound like something Hinata-chan would do," Sakura said skeptically. Are you sure that's what happened?"

Deidara grumbled something in response before exiting the room to continue his search for the dark haired girl. Said missing girl poked her head out from under the bed to look up at her friends before mouthing a thank you and going back under to continue hiding. Any good shinobi knows that you don't reveal your hiding spot so soon after being nearly found for the person might come back to check.

"So… what'd you do to Deidara-san?" Sakura asked after a few minutes.

"I was going to everyone's rooms t-to ask for their clothes so I could w-wash them," Hinata explained, still not coming out from under the bed that her two friends were now sitting on. "He said he had a cloak that was dirty and he went to g-grab it… and when he did his hair tie got st-stuck on something and got yanked out. He stood up and l-looked really m-m-mad and thought that I stole it from him, so… I ran away…"

"Getting these pulled out hurts," Ino explained, stretching out onto the bed. "He wasn't mad at you, just mad that he something was pulling his hair. And since you ran away it made you look guilty."

"He just l-looked so angry… it scared m-me."

"Nobody here's gonna hurt you, Hinata-chan," Tenten said, appearing out of thing air and causing Sakura to fall off her bed in shock.

"Tenten-chan's here?" Hinata's voice asked.

"Apparently," Ino said uncertainly. She then reached down to help her friend up. "Some kunoichi… can't even tell when someone enters her room." Sakura muttered threats under her breath.

"What were you saying about Itachi earlier, Pig? It was so important you had to wake me up…"

"Oh yeah… the strangest thing happened to me today in the greenhouse Itachi-san showed me." She told her friends about her meeting with the strange man, carefully describing everything about him that she could remember, from his appendages to his voice. "He reminded me of the Chuunin Exam," she said after her explanation was finished. Tenten glared at the memory and Sakura had a far off look on her face. Ino sighed, none of the girls liked to remember that time for it had a bad memory for each of them, but she wanted to explain. "When Sakura and I fought and I was in her mind… there was someone else there. Someone meaner, like a different personality or something."

"Inner me," Sakura mumbled, an embarrassed smile on her face.

"Yeah! That! It's the same thing, except his other half is able to talk."

"So… Ino-chan…" Tenten said slowly, "what you're saying is that there's some really interesting plants in that greenhouse. Right?"

"Oh of course!" Sakura agreed. "And I'm sure they have some really nice smells coming from them as well!"

"There's a giant shark running around here," Ino said in a monotone. "And you guys don't believe that there's a plant with multiple personalities?" Sakura and Tenten nodded, and Hinata let out a small giggle from under the bed. "You guys are the worst friends ever!"

**IxS DxH ZxI SxT**

**I'm soooooooooooo sorry for the late update! But finals were coming up and I had to study so much I didn't get a spare second to write anything. But everyone gets some Zetsu/Ino so it all works out, right? And I also have this updated on my birthday! So everyone give me lots of reviews for my Sweet 16 and I will love you forever!**

**Saku-baka**


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